Welcome to Gaia! ::

Okay... this is mostly for laughs... to vent, and to just kinda like go LOL. I've been RPing for a little over a year. Yeah, I'm still new to it and yeah, there's still a lot left to learn. But I lurk a lot of places, I read through a few other guides, and I've seen what works. Some stuff better than others and I wish some stuff wouldn't work that does, 'cause Barton town scares the s**t out of me most days anyways.

So first a disclaimer: No names of any RPer will be mentioned (except me, 'cause I will be mentioning my faults). If a personality or character (canon) example I use is something similar to what you use, then tough luck. Its not meant to offend, and I'm taking rips at myself just as much as others. That's why I call it a Pissy guide. 'cause its filled with ranting and stuff too.

I'm not saying this guide is perfect, far from it. But it probably will get some editing here and there as I refine it, maybe one day it'll turn into a real guide or something. I don't know.

Hence also why its staying in the guild. It will insult less people that way, or less people will take offense to it...and people who do take offense to it well... I might care, I might not. If you chose to get all hurt with what I put down here, obviously there might be a nerve touched, maybe you're doing something wrong? *shrugs* Hence the Pissy. Extremely Pissy.

Anyways, onto the guide now that the wall of text is done... mebbe. ninja

General Rules to Some Decent RPing:

1) Respect Everyone
~This goes without saying. If you can't respect a person for their ability to RP or for other good qualities, then something's wrong and maybe you're in the wrong RP.

2) Play your Canon characters accurately
~ This goes without saying, and if you make a rule about playing canons as they should be, follow it yourself. Crack and lulz are all fine and good, but hypocrites are not. If you're a mod having a problem with how someone plays a canon, make sure your own canons are being played accurately, monkey see, monkey do.
~If you're not accurate, faith in the moderators of a thread is lost. If a character had a personality shift in their storyline, explain that to the one asking.

3) Everyone has personality.
~Putting in a profile is all fine and good, only if all characters have to adhere to the same rules. Canons included, as they can have personalities too right? And people can play canons at different periods in a game, or series of games. So either set personality for every application you want to receive, or none. Singling out OCs, for example, makes it very hard and unfair to those that only have OCs they want to RP as they don't trust themselves to play certain canons.

4) If someone has a serious concern, take it seriously. Don't just blow it off.
~Its understandable how people want to distance themselves from RPing as real life can be taxing, but telling people that their concerns about something going on aren't worthwhile, that looses you credibility points, as well as faith in humanity.

5)Honesty
~Its hard to do, but people tend to respect it more than not, that does NOT mean they have to like it.
~Stealing ideas is bad form. Even if it doesn't seem like it was stealing, ask before using it. People stop sharing if you start spoiling.

6) FINISH YOUR DAMN PLOTLINES
~ No, seriously, you start something, you finish it. Taking the cheap way out doesn't cut it. Using a plot just to give a character angst and then ending it? You leave out others who were trying to help. Its understandable if life gets in the way, or if you're in a mood, but if you can finish a plotline, then don't do a cop out. Do you really think people are going to like it if you can't see something to the end without good reason?

7) RPing responsibilities
~This one can be taken many ways, particularly offensive. Having people wait two weeks for a post without explaining to them that its writers block or something else going on, really tends to cheese people off. REALLY DOES. Its currently happening to me, and yes, I'm a bit miffed, and no, I'm not going to push it because I like trying to be nice, though that doesn't make it any less frustrating to me. I try to respond to posts as soon as I can. I see it as common courtesy when you tell others that something's interfering with how you're thinking of responding to a post and you're trying to work around a block. It happens. And it would be NICE TO KNOW. Because you know... its not just your character that s**t is happening to.

8 ) Give Credit where credit is due
~Someone suggest an idea, and you do it, make sure to say "Thanks for the idea *insert username here*". Its polite and makes people feel accepted and wanted. If you take the idea and claim it as your own, you're just an a**. If you want to be an a**, go ahead, but really... come on!

9) Involvement
~Get everyone involved. EVERYONE. And not just the person behind the character, get the characters involved. People want something for their characters to do in an RP, sitting idle waiting for s**t is not fun. Being used as a post count is not fun. I like having my characters involved, I'd rather them be involved than just giving me, the mundane something to do. Leaving me in the dark for months and then being like "Oh, well, nothing for your characters but you can do this..." is kinda rude. Here's some steps to the attempt:
A) "Heyo, your characters are interesting, what can they do?"
B) "Is there anything your characters would like to learn how to do?"
C) "I'm trying to plot something out here, lets see if we can't get one of your characters involved."

~Excluding people does not earn you brownie points. Keeping people out of the know that something is going on does not earn you brownie points. Take an "I don't care attitude" with people who're trying to help keep an RP alive... and well, yeah... good luck.

10) Communication
~ It pisses me off when people don't communicate. Or ask questions when they're confused. Its happened to me a LOT and I'm ******** sick and tired of it. If you wonder if someone has played a game, ASK. If you think you've misread something and want clarification, ASK. If you wonder if someone has read something ASK. A lack of communication makes things fall aprt.

~~Personal Experience: I was told someone had been assuming I hadn't played a certain game/game series. They never asked me. So I get to yell at you for being ******** idiots when you suddenly make assumptions that are wrong. I owned and played the entire game series.

~~Personal Experience: There was a character of mine in which I was trying to decide something about the character, and talking about it in an OOC I belonged to. Apparently this talk got misconstrued and people started assuming something odd about the character, and then didn't ask me about it. Until it was kinda too late. I was miffed. Extremely. I personally don't bite unless given good reason to. Was it really to hard to just pop off a PM ans ask?

Note: Both these experiences have been dealt with, I'm still a bit miffed but less than I was when they actually happened.

Well, nothing wrong with that! I mean, everyone deserves a chance to make something fun and enjoyable for themselves and anyone else that wishes to join. But there are certain things you need to keep in mind when doing it. Or at least somethings I've observed.

1) You are not god. You can be a moderator of the RP, or the head/creator of the RP, but calling yourself god is overboard. It could make people think that you're going to end up controlling their characters without permission, or that you won't listen if someone tries to talk to you about something.

2) Listen to all the arguments - If it needs a place to be hashed out, make a side thread just for that discussion. Talking over messengers might not always be the best idea, as then people can do a he said she said thing.

3) Take people seriously. If someone is doing something you don't like, or presenting an argument that touches a nerve, there might be something to it, find out. If you don't understand, talk it out until you do.

4) NEVER belittle anyone. If you're going to criticize, even in passing as some kind of messed up example, you don't insult them. Constructive criticism gets you more points than just saying what people or you hated.

5) There's a reason - There's always a reason, and more than that beneath the surface. Someone wants to just hang in the OOC, that's fine and good. Making yourself cliquish to the point of alienating the small group of players you have, not so good.

6) Think about what you want. Not about what you don't want or can't stand to have repeated. The past is that, the past, but its brought up as examples for what the future shouldn't be. You don't insult the past and tell people not to bring it up, its something you need to learn from. If you're ashamed to hear about it, you did something wrong. When you make an RP with characters moving from another RP, make it how you want it, not how you don't want it to end up. If you focus on that, it unravels.

((More later when I get back from work))