TIP: Be sure when creating a character to give the character a history. Picture their life, and how the events and people in their lives have affected them. Without a history your character is like a newborn. Giving your character a history makes them more real. You do not have to post their life story, just keep the key events in mind. Be creative about it!


TIP: Let your character grow, but at a steady rate. No one likes a static character who is a super being from the begining, or a whimp that never grows up. Try to find a way to let your character grow steadily over time. This way, it makes for a more exciting character AND roleplay.


TIP: Setting. Setting is very important in a roleplay. The more detailed you are in the description of your setting the more vivid and real your roleplay becomes. A setting will also allow players to interact with things other than eachother. It can also set the mood of an rp.


TIP: Plot. PLot is obviously the most important part of the rp. Plot is also very easy because you can do almost anything with it. The most important thing to remeber is keep your plot within the bounds of the setting and Character. You have to have these predetermined things in mind for your plot to run smoothly.


Tip: In game knowledge only: This is an important thing to try and remember, since you are role-playing, you can only use knowledge that your character would know. If you are being befriended by someone who is in fact an assassin sent to kill you, just because you know does not mean your character does. You should carry on as your character would act, unless he somehow found out in game and chose to act otherwise. Likewise, when battling for example, you cannot use out of game knowledge to give you the edge. If you know of someone's techniques, and exactly how to counter them, this knowledge should be useless unless your character him/herself knows these things as well.


Tip: Setting Character Limits: In a good role play, even the most powerful of characters should have limits. Perhaps a very powerful spellcaster could be limited physically, or a top-class warrior magically limited. However, being creative is good too, you don't have to use something generic like that. For example, perhaps a samurai is gifted with the best swordsmanship in the land, and is very powerful, but he is not an endurance fighter, and burns energy fast. But again, just be creative, and try to set limits so you don't set yourself up as a god, cause people will get mad at those who God roleplay.


Tip: Choosing party members: When choosing a party member, its good to try and pick someone who compliments your characters skills. If you are a powerful warrior, it would probably benefit you more to find a stealthy character, or someone well versed in magic. This does not only apply to skills, it helps to find someone who also compliments your personality. If you are rash, and are the act first, think later type, then it would probably benefit you to find someone who thinks things through rather than leaps into action before thinking. While this is not mandatory by any means, it makes for a more interesting roleplay and an interesting relationship between party members.


Tip: Parallel story lines. Parallel story lines can be fun, as one person has another adventure going on at the same time as the other main characters. However, it is important that if you have a parallel story line that you think ahead to where you and the other characters will meet up, otherwise your really just wasting board space and could be writing a short story instead. Another way to do a parallel story line is to leave things that the other players will find, and at least make it clear that what you are doing has something to do with what the other players are doing.


Tip: Staying in character: When you make a character in a roleplay and have set them up with a certain personality, you should stick with it. Remember, you are roleplaying as your character, if they would do something, no matter how stupid it may be or how much you don't like it, you should do it. If you're character is quick to anger and someone is taunting you into a trap, your character should fall for it, even if you obviously know that there'll be trouble. If your character is naive, and you are being conned by someone, even if it should be obvious to you that its a scam, you should remember, this isn't you, its your character, and act accordingly.


TIP: Choosing your level of literacy: When someone posts a lengthy description of setting, plot, character, and so on, it is generally an insult to the person's time and imagination to post as your first post '*walks in*' or '*Looks around*'. Not that there is anything wrong with that kind of rping, but one must be sure that when using that language that the author of the rp is ok with this. This can usually be determined by the language the author uses. Likewise if the author's first post is "In a taven. He sits at a table", it's not usually nessesary to post a lengthy or highly descriptive post. This is also true when posting character descriptions. Be sure when you are rping not to let your decriptiveness deteriorate, as it often does. This tends to make the rp less and less interesting. The exception is when you don't really have a choice, like when the character is talking.


Tip: Autoing: In roleplaying, autoing is the act of automatically making something happen. This is something that most of the time is done in fights, and tends to make people very annoyed. In fights, autoing is automatically declaring that one of your attacks hits and not giving the other person a chance. For example "I punch Bob in the stomach and knock him over." That was declaring your attack an instant success, something that should not be done. Here's how the attack could have gone "I clench my fists and swing a hard punch at Bob's stomach in an attempt to knock him over." See? The same attack was made, only the latter gave Bob a chance to block, or dodge, posts like that are encouraged.Remember when the new battle system is complete the Shadow Quest stars will hafto go by that system or they can use the
Shadow Quest system in any other rp if you like!