Mistic Pets

Welcome to Issue 14
Created by The Mistic Pets Team

Roleplaying Tips
Written By Caustic

Roleplaying is a highly popular pastime on Misticpets and indeed, there are quite a few people (myself among them) that create pets solely for the purpose of writing them and developing their characters. This is mostly done through roleplaying, unless the owner really enjoys writing by themselves (also a great way to develop a character, by the way). Some, however, are reluctant to join in - whether it’s because they’ve never done it before and are nervous or simply believe themselves to be bad writers, they stay on the fringe of things. Unfortunately, if that describes you, you’re missing out! Roleplaying is neither terribly difficult or nerve-wracking if you keep a few things in mind.

The Univervsal Rules:
You will find them in every single roleplay and in fact, they are actually part of the rules of the Misticpets Roleplay Forum as well. They are the absolute basics that every decent roleplayer should know: no godmoding, power playing, mary-sues/gary-lous, and no chat speak. See the Forum Guide in the Roleplay forum for more detailed description of godmoding and power playing; here I’ll get a bit into a mary-sue/gary-lou.

These types of characters are perfect and absolutely detested. They are extremely powerful and seem to never get so much as scratched in a fight. Their personalities are entirely one-dimensional and never develop; the females especially are somehow tough and mouthy but everyone loves them (and all too often dress inappropriately for fighting); they’re good looking but have a tragic past that (somehow) doesn’t really effect their personality, though they whine about it often enough to remind you. Stay away from these characters! There are online “tests” you can put yours through to see if he/she needs tweaking to keep from becoming a mary-sue/gary-lou, just use google to find one.

The Types:
There are (to my knowledge) two different types of roleplaying and you can pick the one that fits your style best.

Script - Think the script of a play. Posts are generally short and dialogue is the main focus, with actions contained in asterisks (example: *walked along slowly* Hello, my name is Anna). I, personally, have never done this type of roleplay so forgive my lack of detail about them. If you don’t fancy yourself a great descriptive writer, these might be more comfortable for you. This article focuses mainly on tips for the second type, however.

Paragraph - Also referred to as “play-by-post” or “PBP”. They are written like a book, like so:
Natalia settled the matter for him, though. Slender black eyebrows shot up for just a split second in unmasked surprise, and then he had mastered himself again. "Really," he muttered softly, and just as he was about to question the woman further, the supposed bounty hunter strode by and made a move that nearly had Vulpine laughing at its stupidity.

Paragraph is the more widely used form of roleplaying, and what I personally prefer. The detail allows you to go more in depth with actions and places and the dialogue, in my opinion, comes a bit more naturally - but it all depends on your preference and what you’re comfortable with.

After you’ve picked your type there are a few things you can do to make your posts interesting and easy to read:

Be Descriptive!
There’s nothing more frustrating than taking 15-20 minutes (or even longer!) to write up a nice, detailed, multi-paragraph post, and then have someone reply with two or three sentences. A good rule of thumb is to make your reply approximately the same length as the one before you, but of course this varies greatly depending on circumstances. While you don’t want to go on for three thick paragraphs about the moonlight reflecting off water, you want to make sure your readers can adequately “see” your character, his/her actions and the place you’re writing about, otherwise they’ll be confused and unable to respond properly.

Dialogue - Don’t Force It:
Dialogue can be tricky, even for experienced writers. The best way to make it sound natural and not silly and forced is to take into account your character’s age, gender, background and the current situation. For example, a ten-year-old would not ever utter this sentence: “Oh my, this table cloth is lovely! The stitching is so very even and the colors - they compliment each other so well!” A ten-year-old might say this, however: “Ooh, it’s so pretty!”- while spilling their juice on it.

You’re Not the Only One:
Whether you’re roleplaying on a forum or one-on-one in IM, remember that there are other characters; yours is not the sole player. Do not ignore them - talk to them, interact with them, etc, because if you don’t the roleplay will grind to a halt.

Be Realistic:
If a fight breaks out, unless it’s a completely mismatched one, odds are your character is going to walk away with some bumps and bruises. Do not dodge every hit - fight fairly! Do not pretend a stab in your shoulder doesn’t hurt or impede your swordsmanship. A good way to avoid this is to talk it out with the other person out of character to decide who’ll win before even starting. Also, remember that you know more than your character - don’t go mouthing off historical details of the other characters that they only thought about and your character has no way of actually knowing. Logic has its place even in the craziest of fantasy roleplays, so think things through before posting!

Spell check!
Most people really don’t mind a few spelling and grammatical errors; no one is perfect. However, you have spell checker on your computer for a reason, so use it! It’s extremely frustrating trying to wade through a paragraph of typos that is also completely devoid of periods or commas.

Keeping these tips in mind, remember to practice! Your writing will get better, your characters will develop, only if you actually sit down and write on a regular basis. Ask others to critique your posts to point out specific problem areas for you (one of my own biggest faults is accidentally repeating certain words too often) and watch out for them. Remember, roleplaying is supposed to be fun for everyone involved, so just do your best!

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