Helpful RP Guidelines
Oh hey there guys! So, I’ve been thinking about doing this thing for quite some time now, and I finally got around to doing it! Yay me!
Now, I’m certain that I’m going to come off sounding pretentious or like some sort of giant asshole, but rest assured that is not my intent. I just want to offer some helpful advice to people who might not really realize that they’re doing anything that might come off as annoying or hurtful. If you’re offended somehow by this, I’m terribly sorry! I just know what it’s like to be new to the world of RPing and I’ve been in it long enough to know what is and isn’t okay for people to do.
So, without further adieu,PossiblyHelpful RP Guidelines by freakanature06:
General Roleplay
First, I’d like to focus on roleplay in general – specifically things you should and should not do in roleplay, no matter what medium you are roleplaying in. This section should be helpful to anyone and everyone who roleplays!
- Do not godmod/godmode! This is a common issue that most RPers run into at some point or another. Somebody decides that it’s okay to take control of your character for a brief moment or a couple paragraphs or any length of time at all. And it’s not cool. In fact, it’s downright infuriating. So, if the character isn’t yours, you can’t control whether your attack hits, whether they are okay with being dragged around, or anything of the sort. Personally, I like to take the safe approach on this one. I’ll use phrases like “attempts to push him” instead of “pushes him”. It allows my partner the opportunity to change the outcome if they feel that their character would have the ability to react in time.
- Ask permission! Following the same line of thought as the previous guideline, it’s always good to ask your RP partner for permission before you do something. Like, if you want to have your character suddenly get stabbed in the middle of an RP, go ahead and ask your partner if that’ll be alright, if they think they can personally handle it right now. It’s not wholly a matter of making sure the characters can handle the situation, but sometimes the RPer themself is not up to something you might propose. Now, if it’s something you’ve been plotting for a long time, then by all means, have at it however you want! But if you’re going to spring something on someone out of nowhere, don’t. Make sure they know first.
- Be courteous. Kind of a general rule for life, isn’t it? Characters are bound to disagree, but so are the RPers. That doesn’t mean you have to be rude. Always be nice to people. So what if they don’t ship what you ship? So what if they don’t interpret the character the way you would? They’re here to have fun, not cater to you. So let them have fun. If you really dislike the way someone RPs, just don’t RP with them. It’s as simple as that.
- Have fun! Roleplay is about having fun! It’s about stepping outside of your own life for a little while in order to enjoy time in someone else’s shoes. Don’t make it about hate and one-upping or anything like that. Just have fun in your own way. As long as you aren’t harassing others or being a jerk in any way, it’s no big deal.
- Stop taking things so seriously. In conjunction with the last guideline, RP isn’t serious. It just isn’t. I know, some people are super serious about their RP, but what’s the point of getting bent out of shape over it? People don’t hate you because of RP, and if they do, they’re doing it wrong. Just relax. Again, roleplay is supposed to be fun.
- Constructive criticism is good! Especially if you’re asking for it, it is always good to receive some constructive criticism. But please, please don’t take it to heart! The person is not trying to tell you you’re bad at you’re character, they’re trying to help you become even better. And sometimes they’ll suggest things that you don’t agree with and that is fine! Just thank them for their suggestions and take what you can from it.
- Quality over quantity. This is a commonly used phrase in the RP world and for good reason! But I get the feeling that it is frequently misunderstood. No one of any value is going to judge you if you give one-liner responses where necessary. However, they are going to judge you if you consistently give your partners nothing of any value to work off of. If your partner has given you a couple of lines in which their character asks yours a question, do not respond with a simple nod and smile! Go just a little further than that so that your partner has something to work off of when it’s their turn to reply.
- In character does not equal out of character. Just because someone else’s character hates your character, it doesn’t mean that the person behind the character hates you! Just relax and realize that they are not their character. And if you’re really worried, just go ahead and ask them. Most people aren’t horrible people.
Tumblr RoleplaySince I am currently the owner of a number of Tumblr RP accounts, I figured that having a section about etiquette in the Tumblr RP environment would be good!
- Your RP Tumblr is not your personal Tumblr. Please don’t treat it as such. It is perfectly understandable to reblog some pictures of your character or to post out of character sometimes (to let people know what’s up in your life or to see if anyone wants to RP, things like that). But if you are spamming your blog with things completely unrelated to your character or giveaways, then you’re doing it wrong. It’s really irritating and nobody likes to see that on their already busy RP dash.
- Reblog as text. A lot of times, if there’s a lot of text in a post, Tumblr will automatically switch it to reblog as a link. Don’t let it do this! It gets really difficult to continue reblogging and just plain looks sloppy after a while. At the very top of the reblog page, there will be an option to ‘Reblog Link [as]’. Click the [as] and then you can choose [as text]. It’s as simple as that!
- Cut down the RP each post. There’s no reason for you to have every single line of the RP in every single post you make. Between you and your partner, you can cut the post down. Just remove everything from a couple of posts back to make the RP look cleaner. Also, this prevents you from clogging up people’s dashes.
- Magic anons don’t rule you. So don’t act like they do. If you don’t like something a magic anon has slated for your character, just tell them ‘no’. It’s no big deal! And on the other side of things, if you are someone who does magic anon people, don’t get all butthurt and hating on people who don’t want to do what you’ve magic’d them into. It’s nothing against you. They just don’t think their character can handle it.
- Don’t activate magic anon effects in the middle of an RP. Unless, of course, you’ve discussed the idea with your partner. But if you decide to just let go of the continuity of the RP by having a magic anon’s magic take place in the middle of an RP you’ve been doing for days, it can get extremely confusing, not to mention annoying. So, for common courtesy’s sake, don’t do it unless your partner has okay’d it.
- Tag your posts. While not strictly necessary, this can be really nice for people who want to stalk certain RPs of yours. So go ahead and tag the person you’re RPing with. If your partner has dashes in their name, though, leave those out and just put spaces instead. Tumblr doesn’t acknowledge dashes as a valid character for tags. Also, if your post is not safe for work, tag it as such! Not everyone on Tumblr wants to see your porn.
- Porn and gore goes under a ‘read more’. As stated before, not everyone wants to see it! So be courteous and put it under a ‘read more’. It’s not that hard and it spares the people who really, really don’t want to see it. On top of that, go ahead and tag the post not safe for work as well. It makes everything so much easier for everyone involved.
And there you have it! Just some basic guidelines for RPing, and specifically for RPing in the Tumblr community. I hope I addressed all of the big issues, but I’m not perfect, I’m sure I’ve forgotten some. So, with that in mind:
My ask box is always open. If you have any questions or concerns about these guidelines, don’t hesitate to ask! In the same vein, if you have anything you think should be added, go ahead and shoot it my way! I don’t mind people trying to help make this more comprehensive, in fact, I’d be happy for it!
Finally, thank you all for reading. It felt good to finally get this out of my system and I really hope that it helps at least a few people!
