Here goes!


Well, here we are. Inside a RP post, you take what you want your character to do and then you describe it, in as much detail and with as much eloquence as possible. Let's have an example- let's say you, as Joe, are wandering through the garden and you pick a flower.

"I wander through the garden and pick a flower."

Wow, what a great post! Not. First of all, we don't use first person. Don't post in first person. That means, no 'I'. Instead, it becomes 'he'. I have seen one or two players who could pull off the first person.

So, our post becomes, "Joes wandered through the garden and picked a flower." That's much better than our original, isn't it? But, it's still missing something. Or, rather, a few things. It has very little plot for one thing, and what it does have is poorly described. In order to add more detail, we'll have to decide a few more things. Why is Joe in the garden? Why is he picking the flower? What sort of flower is it? What time of day is it? Here's a post that incorporates more detail:

Joe marched through the garden furiously. He snatched a black rose off its stem.

Now, vocabulary the age in this forum ranges from 13-19 I expect something better than 1st grade vocabulary...

Incomplete MOAR TO COME  

--Last edited by SSj5Bob on 2008-03-22 12:57:45 --

Now for combat.

Combat is give and take, like a game of chess. Each player will pose 1 action at a time, then the second player will react to the first player's action appropriately.
For example:

Quote :

Player A dashes at Player B and aims a swift kick at Player B's ribs. Player B turned to the side, blocking the kick with his forearms.

Player B reacted with something physically possible and fair.
In Player B's post, he/she may also counter-attack against Player A.

Quote :

Player A dashes at Player B and aims a swift kick at Player B's ribs. Player B turned to the side, blocking the kick with his forearms. Player B threw Player A's leg away with his left hand, and with his right he hurled a strong jab at Player A's face.

You cannot call your own hits. Player B jabbed at Player A's face, but it is ultimately up to Player A whether the punch is successful or not. In addition, it is up to your opponent whether your attacks are successful, so playing fair will work to your advantage. However, just because you can decide the outcome of your opponent's attacks, some things are dictated by ability. For example, if Players A and B are locked in a beam struggle, and Player A is a Ki Master with double Player B's experience, Player A will usually win the beam struggle because that is fair. Always RP fairly.

Again, keeping combat balanced will make for a better experience all around. Player A and B can continue to counter, attack, and defend, until one character is defeated. How do you know you are defeated? Simple. The laws of physics apply (although loosely because of the nature of abilities), so if someone breaks your ribs, you're not going to fight very well. If your leg is broken, no more walky for you.

Here is a handy little list of combat rules that will make your posts more interesting and keep the staff happy.

-Post fairly. There will be no godmodding and even less toleration of it.
-Your character is not a combat expert, especially at the beginning. He/she will grow in experience, but initially you're just average.
-No bunnying (i.e., taking control of someone else's character). You wouldn't want that to happen to you, would you?
-Above all, PLAY FAIR. Since combat is give and take, you WILL take damage. It's up to you to decide what damage you take, but if your opponent is faster than you and he rushes at you with a flurry of punches, you're more than likely going to be hit. If you are a water-themed fighter and your opponent is an electricity-themed figher, you're conductive.
-Use common sense.

Isn't that nice.....stop spamming and follow the rules.

Dazzle!
Within some cases of RP postings, one may feel the urge to add effects to the scrïpt.  Everything that I'll describe here works in the following format

[codestuffies]The Text to be edited[/codestuffies]

The [ ] are important, as is the / on the ending box.  Without the /, the effect will continue until a / occurs (or sometimes frig up an entire post... not fun when a 3-page RP post goes down the commode). I'm putting   an   extra   space between the [ codes ] brackets in the examples so that they don't turn on - normally it'd be [code].
[ b ] is Bold
[ i ] Italics
[ u ] Underline
These are a few examples, and are all up on the top box (I just felt like using those as examples... and they were being described in FrenTalianToguese something).

When the effect is listed as a button, you can simply highlight the text to be edited - click the button.

What if I want to do something not there??? WHAT DO I DOOOOO?!?!

Despair not.  There's some other things that can be done, without using the buttons...

Hyperlinks... [ url ]www.DFENSpwnju.com[ / url ]
You can also do it like this
[ url=www.DFENSpwnju.com ] Check out this cool site roflrofl [ /url ]
For example... look at my profile link.

COLORS
These use a nasty bit of computer-speak called "Hexadecimal".  Nasty stuff.  For how it works, hit Wiki.  For the basics, here goes.

(With extra added spaces to avoid accidentally turning code on)
[ color = 000000 ] text to be colored [ /color ]
What do those 6 zeroes mean?  Those are for the values of the colors.  Ever use the color-slider thing in videogames (Armored Core games use the same thing)?

Red?
Green?
Blue?

I don't know if I got the colors right, I'm just guessing... but here goes.  Red, Blue, and Green are divided up - each gets 2 digits.  So here's how you'd type it out
[ color = RR GG BB ]

00 is the lowest value, while FF is the highest.  Black would be 000000, White would be FFFFFF.  For purple, you'd mix Red and Blue.  The higher the values, the brighter the hue.  

Red - FF0000
Green - 00FF00
Blue - 0000FF

To mix colors, add a little bit of a second color -
Yellow - FFFF00
Purple - FF00FF
Orange - FF3000

I think that covers most of my knowledge that relates to this forum.  One might be able to google/wiki the hexadec color codes if looking for a very specific color, otherwise just play around (or use another forum as reference )

If anyone has any questions, send me a pm/quick-message and I'll try to get back to ya with a helpful response.

Also, you can quote someone's post and it the code should be able to be seen in the quote-box before being posted again.  

Ummm, that seems to be about it.  I would say something like "Read the rules" or "Don't spam" or "Don't run with scissors", but really, all this old man cares about is bingo night, candystripers, and jello.

Get me my spongebath!

(EDIT - ... looking back over my post, that bit of an attempt at humor there at the end might look like a crack at Blues - it's not in any shape or form, I was just listing what seems to me to be the general aggravations that forums undergo (I even left out grammar... although I'll say that some forums are all about the grammar... While I'm thinking about it, don't go graverobbing the sprite threads).  

--Last edited by dfens on 2008-03-19 20:27:00 --

You know, you would make a great addition to the RPG Moderation team.

Well, I can't make any promises on being any kind of contributor of goodness, but if ya'll want me on, I'm cool with it... (pending some thinking so I don't jump into something too quickly)  

--Last edited by dfens on 2008-03-19 20:53:31 --

I will see what the rest of the mods think about it. Could you also please give your opinion on

http://dbzvortex.aceboard.com/229463-10420-17687-0-question.htm#vb

Since we need as much input as possible.

2 things - could the off-topic posts be deleted, and this thread stickied?  It's no big deal, but for those who are new to RP and wondering about topics this thread discusses... of course, just reading through some well-written RP is a great teacher too.

It was meant to be stickied anyway.