Free Form Role Playing General Guide [New to this forum? Please, READ THIS!]

[Neon Knight]

Introduction
Hello, and welcome to the guide to the FFRP section on GiTP forums. This guide is intended to provide helpful information for newcomers to the FFRP forum.

What is the FFRP forum all about? It's about playing a character in a universe or setting, with different threads in the forum representing different places within the universe or setting. You move your character from thread to thread to travel around.

Universes

Spoiler

First, we need to address these universes and settings. The FFRP section is divided into different role playing universes.

ACRONYM is named for the acronym organizations, groups of like minded individuals, the names of which are acronyms. ACRO is set in the Nexus, an expansive all incorporating multi-verse. ACRO is multi-genre and multi-setting, and basically any character, plot and setting is acceptable for play here. Theoretically, there can be crossovers between TOWN and ACRO, but this is rare.

The Town is set in, appropriately enough, the city of TOWN. Here any race can be found, and the technology level varies. Theoretically, there can be crossovers between TOWN and ACRO, but this is rare.

Metropolis is a lower-power sci-fi "inspired" universe, set in a prison city on Earth, where innate superhumans, and other undesirables, have been sent to. Magic, and certain other things, are not acceptable here. Metropolis is its own separate universe with no overlap, connection, or crossovers with TOWN, ACRO, or Bleachitp.

BleachitP is a universe based on the popular shonen anime and manga Bleach. Apart from this, it's main difference is that the story is a lot more directed than the other universes. Bleachitp is its own separate universe with no overlap, connection, or crossovers with TOWN, ACRO, or Metropolis.

Each of these FFRP universes has an OOC thread where you can introduce yourself, ask questions, and get a feel to see if you would be interested in that universe.

Please note that while this information is current as of this posting, time changes all things. Some FFRP universes might die out, some new ones may be born, and the existing ones might change. In general they should follow these guidelines, but always err on the side of caution and ask the people in the verse before assuming anything.

These universes obviously cater to different audiences and employ different genres, moods, tones, and themes. But they do share a few things in common, these being the rules. Now, these rules aren't absolutes. Different universes, threads, and posters might be more or less permissive than these rules, and there is always room for a little variation.

The first rule of FFRP that we need to address is godmodding.

The Rules

Godmodding: What it is and How to Avoid it
Written by Vael

Spoiler

Godmodding: Taking control of someone else's character without their expressive permission. This term applies to any extent of control, especially including any reactions to something you have done.

Using this definition of godmodding condenses our rule ‘Do not Godmod’ to one very simple but inclusive rule: Do not control someone else’s character. This seems a simple enough thing to avoid, but in some situations (such as combat) people take control in a limited way without realizing it.
Still using combat as our example, here are three examples of godmodding. One blatant, one general, and one subtle in successive order:
(And yes, Vael is me. Darn my godmodding! )

1. Vael shoots a blast of energy at (PC) and the energy rends (PC) who falls dead with a wail.
2. Vael swings a sword at (PC) and strikes home, leaving a small angry red line of blood.
The third example is split into two posts by two separate people to show the entire situation:
3. Post (PC) – (PC) draws his weapon and readies himself for combat, going on the defensive.
Post (Vael) – Vael slashes (NPC), giving him a gaping wound and reverses the attack, striking at (PC)

The first example of godmodding is obvious, I attacked someone and killed them, usurping all of their control over their character, not even allowing them to describe how they died.
The second example is fairly noticeable as well. I attacked and rather than allowing them control over their character, I went ahead and said that they were hit rather than giving them a chance to respond.
The last one is a rather subtle godmod, though it is still there. I did not post a definite reaction for the PC, only saying that I attacked them. I did not kill anyone’s NPC without their permission, only using the NPC with general license. However, what I did do was presume that I hit the NPC. What if (PC), or another person nearby had wanted to prevent me from harming the NPC? I effectively denied them a chance to react to my attack, though my use of the NPC was okay.

Godmodding in non-combat situations is just as bad as doing it within combat. Some examples of non-combat godmodding are as follows:

1. Vael casts Heal and cures (PC)’s wounds.
2. Stealthily Vael picks (PC)’s pocket and steals (something).
3. Vael dodges the bouncer blocking the door and runs outside.

In the first example I did not allow someone the chance to say how grievous their injury was, or even if they had something that would resist healing spells. In short, they lost a chance to react. You would normally assume people like getting healed, but in town people are crazy, so you never know.
Second example. What if the character is sharp-eyed, clever, or simple lucky? Again, try to do something rather than succeed.
Third example. Now this seems okay, and perhaps in responding to someone else’s post it would be. But if someone says “I block the door” and you run past them without letting them respond, it is godmodding. This, perhaps, is not the best example, as it could be either godmodding or a reaction statement that is fine. I include it merely so that you can see that there are different levels to godmodding, and that it is complex to determine whether some things are godmodding are not. If you aren’t sure, don’t act, try to act.

Now that I have defined godmodding and given some examples, the question to answer is: How can I avoid godmodding by accident?
The answer is this: You can try to do anything to someone, but they control what actually happens to themselves. Never deny someone a chance to react, no matter what you do. Before you post, consider what you have written. Do you directly affect someone with it, adversely or positively? Do you block them off from some options that someone would normally have in their situation? If the answer to either question is yes, you probably need to revise your post.
Note, however, that the definition states that this is only godmodding if you do not have someone’s permission. If you obtain someone’s OOC permission to godmod, then feel free to godmod against them within their restraints. However, I recommend that you merely work out someone’s response before time, just in case something unexpected comes up (like another player interfering).

However, just as bad as taking control of someone else's character is making your own never get affected by them. As Regiji says: "The counter part to an irresistable force is an immovable object." Therefore, you should let people at least achieve SOMETHING when they attempt to affect you. You don't have to all the time, but if your character is continually "immovable" you will be godmodding, and people will be extremely likely to ignore you. So don't just "I dodge" everything, okay? Let people do something to you if they try.
Also note that there is another form of godmodding similar to the above, which will be known as ‘passive godmodding’ (kudos to Iames for the name). Passive godmodding is when a player ignores an entirely legitimate post for little to no reason. If you miss reading a post, that is one thing, but to ignore a post intentionally is very bad form. You are allowed to react to someone’s post in nearly any way you want, but ignoring it really should not be done unless they are godmodding or adversely affecting an ongoing plot without permission.

Threads

Spoiler

As stated way back at the beginning of this guide, in FFRP, a thread represents a location in which interactions take place. You move your character from place to place by moving from thread to thread.

There are a few different types of threads.

Out of Character threads are for discussion and banter not within the narrative of the roleplay. These should be your first stop when starting in an FFRP universe.

Public threads constitute the majority of threads in FFRP. These threads represent IC locations that are open to all characters. You can pretty much just hop in, get to interacting, and have fun.

Closed threads and plot threads are beasts of a different nature. Closed threads are private places, open to only a select few or only reachable only through certain IC means. Plot threads are usually created to contain the events of a plot, and are usually open only to those involved with that plot.

To find out where you can post you should read the first post of the thread to see if it contains any relevant information (which it usually does), ask in the OOC, or ask a participant or creator of the thread via PM or some other means.

Plot

Spoiler

Plot is a term applied to events or series of events comprising a storyline. Plots are either created by players deliberately or emerge out of natural, normal interactions. In plots, people sometimes mess around with the rules a bit. Godmodding of a limited form might be permitted if it aids the plot.

Also, plots can also be somewhat resistant to outside interference. While I personally encourage people to be flexible, to not plan for their plots to end in a certain way, and to be open to new influence, it is true that, for the most part, plots are resistant to interaction from people who are not participating in the plot. This will vary from universe to universe, plot to plot, and from user to user.

Deadtime

Spoiler

A deadtime is a state in which your characters cannot be harmed, but cannot interact with anything around them. You put your characters into deadtime when you are about to log off and stop roleplaying for a bit. A character in a deadtime cannot be affected by anything going on around it.

If a character is deadtimed, and a plot or series of events would likely evoke a reaction from that character, it is polite to wait for the character to undeadtime and react before advancing the plot or events.

Some verses might have IC explanations for deadtimes.

The Curtain

Spoiler

The curtain is employed when two characters become physically intimate. When two or more characters decide to have sex, the curtain falls to shield the eyes of the innocent from the festivities and to give some privacy for the participants. This is to both a) abide by the forum rules and b) to keep things relatively family friendly.

Etiquette for when to pull the curtain varies from universe to universe, thread to thread, and probably from poster to poster. Bottom line is that everyone should be comfortable with the actions you have posted, and anything violating forums rules is a no no.

Tips For RPing
Written by Artemis97

Spoiler

Tips For RPing

And so, let's begin. In no particular order...

Character Speech

When someone is speaking, we need to know who! Speech colors help to differentiate speech from normal narration, and each of our characters from each other, but if other players do not know to who each particular color belongs, all we see are disembodied words. When two or three people do this over the course of a few pages, it gets very confusing. So tell us who's talking!

So, instead of: Hi! How's it going?

Try: Bob says, Hi! How's it going?

Also, I humbly suggest we all start using quotation marks. I will admit this is a pet peeve of mine, and not entirely necessary, but it is proper English and if you accidentally miss a color tag, or don't even want to use colors, your text is still understood.

So: Bob says, "Hi! How are you?"

New: Another thing, try to use your character's name every few posts. If all we see is 'he' or 'she' all we learn is the speaker's gender. And try and include a brief description when you enter a new place, or are talking with people who might not know who, or what, your character is. That way we don't spend ten pages having a normal conversation with what turns out to be a "Ten foot tall undead wookie."

Next up...


Location Tags

Some threads in FFRP are larger locations that may have smaller locations within them. Even a single building has many rooms. Using location tags helps us all know where your characters are and where the action is at, helps us know who and what our characters can and cannot see, and keeps things organized for those of us reading through large threads and following only one storyline. They're pretty simple, just put where you are at the top of your post.

Like so:

Streets

And then your post continues... blah, blah... you get the idea.

Some of us put brackets around the location, to further seperate it.

[Streets]

And some bold it to make it that much more noticeable.

Streets or [Streets]

Location tags are handy things. Even if your characters are just upstairs in the Taverna, it keeps us all from thinking they're in the middle of the common room.

Moving on...


Big Scenes

That is, scenes involving more than two or three players. Now, I know we're all bored and we all want to make our characters talk and do stuff, but we need to exercise a little patience and keep our fellow Players in mind. Especially during a big fight, give everyone a chance to respond. We all type at different speeds, and some of us might have a little more to say than others. In either case, if the situation we're responding to changes, we have to spend more time editting out posts to reflect the change. If this happens multiple times, it can make a player feel left behind and alienated.

This brings up another topic


Editting

If I edit, and you edit, then he edits, but I edit again.... it gets really confusing. Again, just exercise a little patience, maybe wait until your next post to reflect the change.


Lonely Characters

If you see someone put a character into a thread that isn't seeing a lot of action, throw a character their way. It doesn't have to be one of your regular characters, heck it doesn't need to be a character at all. A monster suddenly popping out of nowhere make things rather interesting and can cause some fun for both parties. Anyways, my point is, don't leave your fellow players hanging. When it seems like no one wants to interact with you or your character, it alienates you. We lose players this way. I know we don't mean to be unfriendly, but it really isn't a nice thing.

This goes double if the player in question is new to the sub-forums. Don't let us lose people before they even start to play. FFRP is a fun place, let's share it with them.


Well, that's about all I can think of right now. Like I said before, this is meant to be a discussion. Feel free to make your own suggestions. And I want to say again that none of this is meant to hurt anyone. This is done in a hope to help all of us.

Thanks for listening, and please do weigh in.

~Artemis

"Wow! FFRP looks like fun! How do I get started?"

Spoiler

Every roleplaying universe is different, and more may come to exist after this guide is written. So go to the OOC thread of the universe you're thinking of playing in and introduce yourself. That is the first step, and then the other players can give you the specific details on their universe. Have fun!

Credits for this FAQ:
Neon Knight for organization and writing
happyturtle for a guideline, feed back, and ending section
horngeek for the BLEAChitp description
Shades of Gray for TOWN description
Kaelaroth for Metropolis description
Vael for her excellent rule write ups
Artemis97 for Roleplaying Tips Section
Anyone who provided feedback

[bvdk99]

It's a thread, GM-ed by waterpenguin43. I'm a player, and it's basically Camp Half Blood, minus the characters and plot of the books. There's also Camp Half Blood: Children of the Nile, GM-ed by me, which is basically the idea of camp half blood, except with egyptian mythology rather than greek. You should check them out.

[waterpenguin43]

Originally Posted by bvdk99

It's a thread, GM-ed by waterpenguin43. I'm a player, and it's basically Camp Half Blood, minus the characters and plot of the books. There's also Camp Half Blood: Children of the Nile, GM-ed by me, which is basically the idea of camp half blood, except with egyptian mythology rather than greek. You should check them out.

Oh you naughty boy! Stealing the words out of my mouth!

[bvdk99]

Yeah, though I'm thinking of making a Harry Potter thread...

[IcemanJRC]

Freakin stealing my idea bv...

[Darkcomet]

>.> I think this is where discussions on making new continuities/universes/etc goes?

[bvdk99]

Originally Posted by IcemanJRC

Freakin stealing my idea bv...

Well, I guess we just thought of the same idea. But I was thinking of making one for the whole school, not just one house..

[Introbulus]

Maybe it doesn't happen often enough to warrant a guide, but this thread is seriously lacking in info on what to do when starting your own thread.

Just saying, I'm about to start one, and it would help out to know if there's any particular method that thread posters use, or rules that should be followed for thread posting.

@V: That does help, yes.

[happyturtle]

New Threads:

1. If you want to start a new roleplay universe, please go here and fill out the universe profile form listed in the first post, and choose an abbreviated tag for your thread titles.

This is not an approval process in any way, simply a way for us to keep the subforum organized and make it easier to match up players with the roleplay universes that interest them. However, it's a good idea to make sure you aren't too similar to another universe, and that you'll have players who are interested, or it will quickly die.

2. If you want to start a new thread within an existing roleplay universe, find that universe's OOC thread and ask there. Each universe tends to have its own customs and protocols, with some of them being more tightly controlled than others.

Does that help?