User blog:Trisell Chronos/Mustacheo Rants an Instruction on Roleplay Character Type Formatting (Trisell)

Recent events have pushed me to deciding that this needs to be said. You see, there are many types of roleplays people can create and take part in that follow different rules. We have scripted roleplays that have a definitive path expected for people to follow, we have non-scripted roleplays where things just happen, we have roleplays that ask for limitations or let you go all out.





There are a great deal of times where people will join a roleplay and some people want to be THE hero or THE villain: more generally THE character with the most importance who does the strongest things. Because there’s not usually any guidelines to show what the intentions of the roleplay creator are, everyone has a god-complex and treats anything they come up against as weaker than them. There’s always this hinted but never outright said statement by just about everyone that goes along the lines of “My character is stronger than you think, and you need to treat them with respect”.



Sometimes this results in people just ignoring what some characters do, other times they just negate what they do without explanation. How do we deal with this? Well there’s two things that need to come into play. The first is more specific to the roleplay creator while the second is more specific to those answering the roleplay, but both can apply to either.





The FIRST
is to give proper guidelines of what your roleplay will entail in terms of threat and powers. For instance, if you want to have a scripted roleplay where certain events have to happen and you don’t want people to do anything that’ll change the overall script of the roleplay, you need to have that outright stated. Here’s a list of all the basic formats I think would help.



Strict Script
Everything has to go according to plan unless stated otherwise. Characters with skills/strengths on the level of the roleplay are suggested, and users are expected to stick within the boundaries of the roleplay and handle problems as instructed in the roleplay (unless stated otherwise).



EXAMPLE: Having Jesse the god of fire appearing to team up with secret agent Kyle to infiltrate an evil cooperation through stealth and specific weaponry. Jesse isn’t going to need to use stealth because he can just instantly fly over, burn through the base, and take the item they were looking for, thus skipping the entire point of the roleplay. However if Max the pyrokenetic is brought in, he can heat up his hands and melt some things, but he won’t be able to god-mode through the whole roleplay. Jesse the god of fire could still be involved, but he’d be forced to limit himself and it won’t be using the roleplay to the full extent.



Leisure Script
There’s a plan and a goal, but you’re free to divert from the original method of getting to the goal as long as the characters involve still perform the roles given. Characters from any level of strength and skill may be allowed even if some are better-used in the roleplay than others.



<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Because of these roleplays possibly being shorter due to them having less linear paths, it’s often suggested that there be more to do after the goal is completed just in case as a sort of reward where there’s still activity that’s relevant to the story.

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<p class="MsoNoSpacing">EXAMPLE: Jack needs to get to his sister’s wedding in Country No. 2, but he’s in Country No. 1.  Sam is brought in to help Jack get to Country No. 2.  Sam may be able to instantly teleport, or have no powers at all, but regardless of his powers, he’s still going to help Jack get to the wedding. After they get to the wedding, no matter how fast it took, they’re able to still do things during and after it that are included in the roleplay.

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Free-Roam
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">There may be a threat and a goal or there may not. The roleplay is entirely free in terms of what you can do granting any personal guidelines made by the person posting the roleplay. Characters of any skill or strength are allowed and can follow whatever goal they want as long as there aren’t any specific guidelines limiting them.

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<p class="MsoNoSpacing">EXAMPLE: Tom wants to go and set a field on fire. Jeremy pops up and he can choose to help Tom or stop Tom. He’s allowed to do whatever.

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<p class="MsoNoSpacing">ALTERNATIVELY, there may be something in the rules that says “No fire-controlling characters allowed” so if Jeremy has fired powers, he either can’t use them, or he gets switched out with Stephanie who has water powers or no powers instead.

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<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Those are the three main formats. Obviously many people have their own rules of how things can go. In a scripted roleplay it may say “Only this character can do this” and in a free-roam it may say “Sexual content isn’t allowed in this roleplay”. If the person posting the roleplay wants to have THEIR character be the big bad or the main hero, then like it or not, it’s best to choose a character to use that isn’t going to be on the same level, or hog the spotlight. HOWEVER, you NEED to make this known to people, because not saying that you want something one way or another is the MAIN cause of there being five different “I’m number one villain/hero” and no one being happy.

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The SECOND
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">thing to consider involves explanation of possibilities. I say “possibilities” and not “powers” or “skills” because it’s a bit bigger than just that. A character who appears because another character was in the roleplay isn’t a power, it’s a possibility. In other words, “Because Sam was in World No. 1, John will sense Sam and travel to World No. 1 regardless of Sam’s powers”.

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<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Anything that can happen involving characters, items, locations, etc. need to be explained well-enough when used or (preferably) BEFORE being used. If Sam has the sword of XYZ and can summon the power of gravity to vanquish his foes, the sword’s ability should be noted upon in good enough detail.

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<p class="MsoNoSpacing">FOR EXAMPLE: “The sword rose to the air, sending out a pulse of gravity-based energy, and reaching out to lift things from the ground” rather than “He started pulling things into the air”.

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<p class="MsoNoSpacing">This kind of situation thankfully isn’t usually the problem, but powers that REQUIRE explanation are. Saying “The power of light” or “The power of darkness” is vague. People aren’t going to know how to react to someone shooting darkness or light at them unless you explain what the intended effect of the energy is.

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<p class="MsoNoSpacing">FOR EXAMPLE: “The dark energy blows up Jack” doesn’t explain how it blew up Jack, and doesn’t give the person controlling Jack the opportunity to respond according to how Jack as a character would. HOWEVER, saying “The dark energy was shot toward Jack in a thin stream. If it touched him, it would attack at any blood in his body, blowing it up from the inside”. Now that the person controlling Jack knows what they’re up against, they can wager Jack’s ability to combat this. Either Jack can somehow survive—be it through dodging, resisting, or immunity—or he’ll be harmed in the process. And of course, the person controlling Jack should explain how Jack reacts to the attack sufficiently as well.

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<p class="MsoNoSpacing">When using something that requires explanation, it’s best to have whatever is being used be part of the character’s profile, or have some kind of source explaining it elsewhere so that people can go there to find it without you having to write up everything over and over. While it’s not necessarily mandatory that everything the character can do be on profiles and other pages, it’s highly suggested because otherwise people can make things up on the fly for their character that weren’t established before. No matter how well-explained they are, it’s no fun when a new power is just pulled out of nowhere just so the person can win.

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Before I finish up here..
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">I also want to touch on what properties are used in various roleplays. While using properties not originating from the series universe being roleplayed in is not wrong by default, it’s best to always keep in mind WHAT franchise/universe you are roleplaying in, and to remember that others involved are probably going to stick to what’s in that franchise/universe only.

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<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Creating things yourself and introducing them such as “The almighty darkness powahz” is all part of roleplaying, fan-fiction, and even original work. In most cases, this is fine as long as you don’t get carried away… HOWEVER, using elements that are outright from (or highly-based-on) different properties need to be CAREFULLY considered.

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<p class="MsoNoSpacing">If you want to give a character armor that looks similar to Bionicle designs, there’s probably not going to be any issues, but if you start saying “Now I carry around the Master Sword and the Buster Sword” you’re bringing in a WHOLE different reality that will probably clash with what you’re already in.

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<p class="MsoNoSpacing">To go off on a little bit of a tangent, this is partially why I’m not fond of hell-based characters and such, or more specifically characters that involve “the soul”. For a specific example, we have the Sonic the Hedgehog Comics (pre-retcon event). We have an established form of souls in what are called “Cores”. We know some things about these cores

<p class="MsoNoSpacing">~They’re glowing balls of energy (usually blue)

<p class="MsoNoSpacing">~They can be affected and extracted by those using Chaos Energy

<p class="MsoNoSpacing">~Without them, bodies remain empty husks but do not decompose by default

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<p class="MsoNoSpacing">If all of the sudden Mefisto the demon king pops up and says “I’m taking your SOULD now” that doesn’t match up with the established reality of the Sonic comics, and thus it clashes. It doesn’t fit.

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<p class="MsoNoSpacing">SOME franchises CAN mix or fit. Sonic and Mega Man have crossed over, as have the Avengers and Justice League from DC and MARVEL, but even then, these instances are usually the people in the worlds going between them, not trying to fit the different world-logics together when they wouldn’t.

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<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Am I saying never to use anything inspired by other franchises? Or even that I don’t want people to crossover things that are from different franchises? No, not necessarily. I personally avoid it, but anything can be handled well, and if you DO choose to go that route, I just suggest you do your research carefully ahead of time.

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IN SUMMARY…
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Make sure people who are roleplaying with you know what they’re getting into, and always explain what you’re doing. That doesn’t mean you have to go over every little thing, just what might not be well-understood by others. There’s going to be moments when everyone asks “Wait, what does that mean?” and you’ll have to explain, but remember that these instances aren’t bad, nor  is anyone necessarily getting upset. They just want answers.

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<p class="MsoNoSpacing">I hope that was of help to people. I PERSONALLY will be using the formats above in my future roleplays and I think others doing so as well will help to avoid problems in the future.

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<p class="MsoNoSpacing">God Bless,

<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Eat Pie and Prosper

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<p class="MsoNoSpacing">~Tak