Advice For Future Roleplayers

I was browsing the very popular roleplaying forum RPG-Directory today and found an interesting thread asking for members to post valuable roleplaying advice for people who are new to roleplaying. The thread was started by member Shadowed Mirrors and was contributed to by more people than I could possibly list here, it’s best to see the thread here.

Here’s the advice list:

1. Don’t spam a cbox or you’ll get your head cut off XD
2. Don’t be rude to older members or you’ll head get cut off
3. Just don’t loose your head
4. Save posts to a word document because if you lose it you will be frustrated all day
5. Variety is good. Mary-sues not so good.
6. Look-up what a Mary-Sue is XD 
7. Don’t always play what you’re familiar with – branch out!
8. If you take up a requested character, stay active, or at least give notice that you can’t do it anymore if you need to.
9. If a site is making you uncomfortable, find a place that makes you comfortable – this is supposed to be fun!
10. Read everything you can, and then ask questions. ;]
11. Always communicate with other members (including the staff) and don’t be afraid to do so!
12. Don’t be shy. Plot, post, ask questions.
13. There is NO reason put up with admins who behave badly with you.
14. It’s a game, try not to treat it like the world is ending all the time.
15. IC does not equal OOC.
    • A character’s opinion does not always reflect that of its writer.
    • The RPer isn’t (usually) their character, and vice-versa.
16. You’re one member, but admins have to consider all the members. Don’t take admin decisions personally. They’re (usually) not out to get you.
17. Mary-sues don’t exist. Just make sure you don’t keep trying to pull all the attention onto your character all the time and you’ll be fine.
18. It’s just a hobby, don’t let it consume your life or damage relationships.
19. Your character doesn’t have to be liked by everyone.
20. Neither do you (but you do have to be polite!)
21. Learn from older rp-ers but don’t let them bully you into something that isn’t your style/isn’t fun for you. There are plenty of boards out there with plenty of styles and opinions.
22. Read. read. read. I see this all the time, new people want to play immediately and have barely read the forum info let alone any threads. Read around, get acclimated with the board’s atmosphere, its writing, its tone and once you did that you’ll be able to create much more fitting, relatable characters.
23. Never be afraid. Don’t get pressured into something you don’t want to do, and never let somebody tell you that one of your OCs is stupid or a bad character. As long as you follow any rules and guidelines for whatever forum you’re on, your character should remain YOUR character.
24. Don’t be pushed/forced into doing a rp you don’t want to do. This could be a sexuality for a character, a certain type of sex scene, playing certain ages, etc…
25. Always ask permission to join a topic that’s well on it’s way. NO ONE likes getting their thread jacked
26. NEVER EVER get too emotionally attached to characters. Just because two characters are lovers does NOT mean you have to be romantically attached to the Player rping the romance-partner in rp.
27. Remember, even the most experienced roleplayers started somewhere. Everyone had bad grammar/spelling at one point in time.
28. Try to roleplay with everyone on the board. Do NOT just rp with a select few members
29. DO NOT make every topic on a board private or invite only. This is extremely unappealing to new members and makes them feel like the left out puppy in a large pack.
30. Don’t go getting all buddy buddy with someone just because they play one character wonderfully. One wonderful character does not equal wonderful person behind the keys. *Shudders*
31. Read read read, not only all the information topics in the beginning, but also as many threads as possible (including those your character is not a part of) as the game continues. It’s much easier to come up with plot ideas when you know what everyone else is doing. Plus, while there is no better way to learn than doing, watching others is going to help you learn the ropes, too.
32. It is a hobby, not an obligation. If you are not happy with your partner, communicate communicate and tweak tweak tweak. If you aren’t happy with it, don’t give yourself the stress of reply to it. Gently drop it. There is no shame.
33. There is no right and wrong. Do not let anybody tell you that your style is “bad”. Role-Playing is about compatibility and you may set your own standard.

There’s a bit of duplication on this list, also you might not agree with everything, but I thought it was interesting to see what other roleplayers list as important. How many of these do you agree with?

If you want to contribute to the list, go here.