Roleplaying Basics

By Theonlyjohnny Resident

Role playing, to some people, is a waste of time. However, to people like me, role playing is not a waste of time, in fact, we love to role play, and a lot of us role play on different sims, and even on different websites.

However, role playing can be a bit demanding, if you're not prepared. That is why I made this guide to role playing, to make sure you're prepared for role playing.

Let's start off at the beginning. The first thing you do, before you even make a character, is find out the story of the roleplay, and what has been going on recently. Just knowing the role play's back story is not enough. You must know what has happened, in the story, recently, so you don't jump on in, and become confused right away.

To find out the story, see if there are any info boards near the welcome area. If there are none, then go ahead and see if any of the sim's admins are online. If you do find one online, then ask them about the story.

Once you've found out about the story, you think you're ready to begin making your character right? Wrong. You still have to find out the rules. Most people would argue about this, and say that the rules are the first thing you look at. Why look at the rules, if you're not sure you're going to role play there yet?

To find out the rules, use the same method you did, to find out the story. Don't just look at the sim rules, look at the race rules and all that too.

Now that you've read the story, and the rules, it is finally time to make your character right? Well, technically yes and no. It is time to make your character, using clothes, and parts. A lot of times, the Character card will ask what your character wears, so this is a crucial part of making your character, so that you don't have to keep going back, and changing things, on your character sheet.

Go into the Marketplace, and look for the right genre of clothing, for your character, that fits the sim. If the sim is dark and gloomy, don't get bright colored clothing, get clothing that is dark colored. If it's a medieval sim, don't have your character wearing silk, unless they are of royalty. If it is a cyber themed roleplay, then it's probably not a good idea to be walking around, in a loin cloth (You'd be surprised how many times I've seen it happen.).

Well once you have your character's skin, clothing, shape, and attachments picked out, it's finally time to make your character.

Using the same method you did, for the story, and rules, get the character sheet, and start by filling out the basics.

Name, Age, Gender, Species, Clothing.

Those are simple, and easy to come up with.

When you have those finished, it's time to start on the major parts of it. These include the back story, strengths, weaknesses, disabilities, and other items like that.

Back story, while it may seem to come to some people easily, is the hardest part of making your character. However, it can be easy, if you just follow this design,

Where were they born? = What planet, city, that kind of thing. If the story is based in space, then planet or planet and city, if it's not, then you don't need planet.

Who were their parents? = Not their names. Just put their wealth (poor, middle class, wealthy), and what their jobs were.

Number of Siblings. = If your character had siblings, then put how many, if they were the youngest of say 3 then say that. If they were the oldest, then put that.

Did anything tragic happen to them? = If your character lost a friend, or a family member, then you put it in their back story, and put how they lost them.

How did they get here? = If the story is not based on your character's home, then how did they get there?

Why are they here? = What are their goals? What do they plan to accomplish?

And that will wrap up your back story nice and neat.

Strengths and weaknesses, are some of the easiest to come up with, yet they seem hard. Just think of it this way, what are their skills? What are they good at? Those are their strengths. Weaknesses would include their fears, allergies, and what would cause them to give up.

Some people consider disabilities a weakness, but that is not true. Look at how many disabled people can do things that everyone else can do. Disabilities include born without a part of their body, or a weak part of their body. Blindness would be considered a disability as well, same with deafness, and being mute (you can't talk).

Well once you have that finished, it's time to read over your character sheet. If there is something you don't like, then now is the time to change it. Some sims allow characters to be built as the story goes on, in which case after a while, your character will change more and more. In sims like that, you don't have to get your character the way you want the, to begin with, since you can just change them as the story goes on.

Once you've read over your character sheet, it's time to turn it in. However, once you turn it in, wait a few days, and go back to the sim, every so often, till your character has been accepted. If it has not been accepted, then simply ask them why, and change it accordingly.

Johnny