Welcome to Gaia! ::

Disregard of Rules: As you might have noticed from the definitions, it is very VERY important to read your threadmaker's rules, preferably before you apply. Always follow Gaia ToS (Terms of Service) which explicitly state that everything should be kept PG-13. Always follow this Guild's rules which can be found in the form of an announcement in the main forum. These are very important and your friend. *embraces them* (they're soft and cuddly too whee ) And finally always follow your threadmaker's rules, If it says no romance for example, don't try to create any, or find a different roleplay better suited to you liking. Click here to jump to Guild Rules!

• NOTE:The creator is allowed to break the guidelines of his own RP, so long as they don't break the RPR's rules or Gaia's ToS: Yes, the role play’s creator CAN and probably WILL break the rules of his own roleplay if need be. He can god-mod to high heaven since he’s the one who governs the entire world in which your characters find themselves. While it makes for a better roleplay if they don’t break their own rules, it may be necessary at times.

Don't take IC feelings OoC: Some people take character conflict beyond the roleplay itself and blow it out of proportion. In almost very situation, character conflict has no correlation to real-life conflict. So don’t take offense, because it isn’t meant.

Being too Picky: Sometimes, you can't always have a medieval steampunk roleplay, or a modern cyberpunk roleplay. Just deal with what's out there. A roleplay like that may come along some day, but don't just sit there waiting for it to come. Join other similar roleplays. You might even consider joining a roleplay genre that you've never tried before. If you really have to have a roleplay with such specific qualities, make one yourself.

Setting Disregard:This one gets is own special bulletin as it is also one of my biggest pet peeves. Keep your setting in mind while posting! One of the most fun things about roleplaying is that it allows you to be somewhere different, be someone different, and experience new things. If you're in a roleplay that has a medieval setting, you may want to do a little research: Find out what they ate, what kinds of clothes your character would wear, what occupation they'd have...In this case research can be fun. But a warning, if someone makes a minor mistake like saying that in the 1880's, lobotomies had been invented (This is a knitpicky detail, and not correct, but besides they got away with it in From Hell) you don't need to jump down their throats, you may politely point it out, but if it's not too important to the storyline, let it go. Just keep an eye on yourself and keep setting in mind, I was in a medieval roleplay once where someone nonchalantly turned on the radio...needless to say I was a bit confused...

Indestructable/Static Scenario: Often enough, roleplayers completely ignore the area when in combat. They will either treat the terrain as if it can't be changed or damaged, or their character will be unaffected by change or damage to the environment. If you cast a wave of fire in a grassy field, you can expect that the green grass will become singed ash. If it's raining on a packed dirt road, you can expect it to become slippery over time. Just remember that everything around you affects how you will perform whilst in the heat of battle. Maintaining an element of realism, even in the most fantastical universe imaginable, is key!

Inclusion:Everyone is here to have fun, so it only makes sense to include everyone. Try to work everyone's characters into the plot, so everyone feels welcome!

Literacy Levels/Post Size/Post Speed: We are all a little different, and so are our posts. The RPR doesn't have a specific set literacy level, which means some threads might allow you to use *'s to denote actions or something similar. When looking into applying for a roleplay, you should look at the average post size, and see how you will fit in, how much time you have in your schedule may effect your post size as well. If you like to make BIG posts you may feel out of place in a roleplay where people are doing one-line answers, and vice versa. Also how fast the thread moves is important to consider, if you apply and find that every time you're able to check it you're several posts behind, you may want to consider notifying the threadmaker and choosing a different roleplay.

Obsessive Thread Creation: I'm not 100% sure why this problem occurs, but people apparently get ideas for roleplays in bulk quantities on occasion. In any case it's rather daunting to see 6 threads by the same person all created the same day. I suggest that you create no more than 2 threads a week. This however is still a lot, and personally I would suggest creating one roleplay and devoting much time to it's development.
*SIDE NOTE: It's also discouraging to click on a thread and have the description of the roleplay be a one post/paragraph generic description like: "Welcome to the Forest of Endoor. Races here are Ewoks, Humans, Wookies, and Droids. Pick one and fight for your right to exist." In general, people are more likely to join a roleplay that looks well thought out, but on the other hand you want to be a bit careful, especially if you're just beginning, to not get so in depth with your descriptions that you scare people away.

Creator Disregard: This is a major symptom of AWD, which you will learn about soon. This large problem encompasses and is the root of many smaller problems. Basically, this involves doing something critical to some part of the story that only the roleplay’s creator should do. In rare cases, the roleplay’s creator may not mind, but they usually do. Such examples include introducing a new plot element, creating a monster fight(Encounter Synthesis), destroying the setting (Setting Disregard), changing character focus (AWD), and many more.

Encounter Synthesis:Like Creator Disregard this is also a large part of AWD. This is part of a much larger problem that slightly overlaps AWD and Setting Disregard. Encounter Synthesis in and of itself means creating a battle with some random monsters when you feel like it. Most roleplay creators will find this offensive as you will be moving their roleplay without them. The larger problem can be called Creator Disregard.


Attention Whore Disorder (AWD): *dons a white coat and places an xray on a light table* As you can see, this disorder occurs mostly in new roleplayers, and while not many people will admit it, most of us have been there at one point. This is the person in the roleplay that seasoned (Nani? You mean like with salt, pepper, some soy sauce and onions?) roleplayers want desperately to kill on occasion. <-This is however illegal, so most refrain, which is good, as the disorder is easily cured, and the "AWD" patient can eventually become a fully functioning member of the roleplay.
Symptoms: Roleplayers with AWD feel an intense need to be everywhere at once. Often, if they aren't the center of attention at that moment in time, they will create a diversion such as: "Joe Schmo watched as the others worked together. 'I'm useless' he thought to himself, and ran away into the bushes to cry." <-not only is this a pointless angst pit, but it doesn't contribute to the roleplay at all. AWD's may also push plot lines their own way without first consulting with the threadmaker to ask permission. Godmoding and AWD sometimes go hand in hand as well.

If you think you have AWD: That's good! It means you recognize the problem, which is in this case the first step to the solution. When you write a post, before hitting the shiny Submit button, ask yourself "Does this contribute to the roleplay? Does this drastically change the plot to focus on my character? Is this necessary?" Simply thinking through this and practice can greatly reduce symptoms.
If someone you know has AWD: If they are in your thread, politely PM them and ask them to run plot changes/subplots past you before posting them. If the problem persists, you may wish to direct them to this thread, but always be polite, the idea is to help them change, not beat them into the ground.
If that doesn't work:Try the new miracle drug Proginatoravox*

*Proginatoravox may cause agitation, palpitations, excessive salivation, constipation, male lactation, rust-colored urination, hallucinations, bad vibrations, mild electric shock sensations, deprivation, humiliation, debtor's prison, and deportation, dark depictions, dire predictions, life as seen in Dickin's fiction, empty pockets, court dockets, may cause eyes to fall from sockets, rising taxes, poor liability insurance, drowsiness, and headache.

The process of becoming a good roleplayer is just that, a process. You never really get to a point where you stop learning or incorporating new things. We are still developing as roleplayers, but as of now, in retrospect of how we used to be, we'd like to share with you the top things that we wish someone had told us earlier that helped up progress as roleplayers.

The Power of Variety
When I first started roleplaying I was very exclusive in the types of roleplays I was in and in the type of character I chose to play. 90% of the roleplays I was in had the same setting, and most of the characters I used had the same name. It was amazing when I finally tried a male character for instance, what a difference it made in all my other characters even. In addition to being my first male character, he was part of the first rp that I participated in a modern setting.
Moral: Don't be afraid to try new things ever! It's like with foods, if you go through your whole life eating only yellow cake because you like it, then you'll never get to experience carrot, or chocolate, or pineapple upside down cakes. Expand your tastes!

The Power of Limitation
*looks up at the headline* hmmm, oxymoronic. But it's true. This was something that I discovered more recently than I would've liked. When creating a character or a setting, it is important to keep limitations in consideration. For instance, in a fantasy setting with magic, where does the magic stop? Can it return people from the dead or can't it? Another reason to keep limitations in consideration is to avoid godmoding when creating a character. Let's say your character has healing ability. How far does it go? Can he/she heal absoluely anything? Sometimes it's no fun for you or anyone else in the roleplay when a character has an all-powerful healing ability, because it reduces the drama or branch plots that may have been forming. Your character has healing, but what if she/he can't heal broken bones? What is the effect of using this power as well? Does it make him/her tired, could it ultimately kill her/him?
Moral: When creating a character or setting, be sure to set reasonable limitations, they can help your character develop more!

The Power of Research
This bullet gets stars around it because it is probably the most important thing anyone could tell you. Research, research, research! Perhaps the best example of this that I know of is my Galvan II application. My character, due to a quirk of my brain, was destined to have the power to spontaneously and painlessly dislocate all her joints. To work out exactly how she was going to do this took me about 3 hours on wikipedia, google, and a bunch of orthopeadic websites, as well as short talk with Yoder (who's relative is a doctor) on how to relocate a shoulder. The end result was that I had a fantastic understanding of how this character's internal make-up was different from other humans, what her limitations would be as such, and how it might effect her personality. Also if your character is in a setting other than that which immediately surrounds you, you should do some research on the surroundings. This is especially true for historical roleplays. Things to look up specifically: hygeine standards, what they ate, clothings styles, medical procedures, building types.
Moral: A little research goes along way in authenticating your roleplay, and can ultimately benefit you in the long run (I have actually used things I learned as a result of research for a roleplay in many of my history classes *wink wink*).

The Power of Challenges
Never be afraid of a challenge. Don't back down! Remember what was said earlier about variety, the same is true with challenges. So we all are still progressing toward being better roleplayers and there are always others out there who are better than you. One of the best ways to get better is to join a roleplay with moderate to high literacy level, maybe a two paragraph minimum per post. One of first times I realized this was in one of Ivellias roleplays (that was actually mentioned earlier I think), it didn't have a minimum post length (that I recall) but everyone in it was making absolutely beautiful fantastic posts of between 3-5 paragraphs. I felt bad because my posts were all of a rather mediocre length in my opinion, and it was getting frustrating. When I asked for help several people suggested that I take more time (up to a half-hour if necessary), and thought per post, and work on descriptions for instance. As a result my subsequent posts were much better, and now if I ever get "writer's block" I usually sit back and think for 10 or 15 minutes about where my character is and what he/she is doing.
Moral: Accepting reasonable challenges is one of the best ways to progress as a roleplayer.

The Power of Originality
Roleplaying can be fantastic and exciting especially if you are really creative and let it get the best of you at times. There are lots and lots of roleplayers who use a "fill-in-the-blank" character, which is sort of like having a hundred copies of a picture of the same body, and everytime you want a new character, you make slight alterations like hair length. Be creative! Make a totally new character especially with the help of the character creation guide that was shown previously! Be creative in the type of roleplay you make too. It's crazy the number of roleplays that are vampire or naruto based. We really only need one roleplay of each type at a time, so be creative come up with something original, even if it's bizarre. Same goes with powers for characters. Take some time to brainstorm first. Some common powers are healing, pyrokinesis (control of fire), hydrokinesis(control of water), and control of weather.
Moral: Don't be afraid to come up with something completely off the wall and bizarre, sometimes it'll be much more fun, and this can add to the idea of limitations!

The Power of Maturity
There are large differences between being a newbie, and being a n00B. nOOB's are probably one of the most annoying thing about roleplaying, for whatever reason they feel that they need constant attention to flaunt their stupidity. Don't do it. There is nothing wrong with being a newbie, everyone was at one point, but all forms of nOOB-ish behavior should be avoided. Simply be considerate of others and do your best to express maturity. This means when someone doesn't join your roleplay immediately, you don't need to lock the thread, and exhibit the "take my toys and go home" mentality. AWD, and taking things too personally is also not a good idea. Advertising for your roleplay is fine where permitted, but go easy on it, you don't need 4 threads to do so! Also go easy on the number of roleplays you create per week, it's generally better to have one really good well thought out roleplay then several slap-dash ones.
Moral: Use your common sense, and don't go out of your way to be obnoxious >.< Think things through before you post them (this includes OOC comments).

The Power of Vocabulary
I couldn't agree with this more! Work to expand your vocabulary! Words are amazing, there are so many and even words that mean nearly the same thing still aren't like for instance the difference between the word "red" and "scarlet". Word choice is very important, by choosing to use "scarlet" instead of "red" maybe you're trying to imply that the dress that it's describing is more formal and fancy. There are even words for different types of walks: marching, sashaying, strutting, proceeding, ambling, wandering. Vocabulary is an essential part of character analysis, for instance, a general might march down the street, but I seriously doubt that a supermodel would!
Moral: Word choice is an important, though often overlooked part of roleplaying. This is another one that also comes in handy in real life! Follow the link to an online dictionary/thesaurus.*
*A thesaurus is NOT a kind of dinosaur unfortunately. Thesaurus' give you synonyms (words that mean almost the same) and antonyms(the opposites) of the word you entered. For instance, applying the word "bizarre" to the thesaurus, I came up with the synonyms: comical, curious, eccentric, extraordinary, fantastic, far out, freakish, grody*, grotesque, kooky, ludicrous, odd, oddball, off-beat, off-the-wall, outlandish, peculiar, queer, ridiculous, singular, unusual, way out, weird

The Power of Realism
Alright, this is where I really kind of cut off from RPers and go into a more extreme measure on what I consider Godmodding. In my view the more realistic something is the better it gets. I honestly consider blocking bullets with swords an act of God modding in its purest form. The reasons being;

1) Bullets travel faster than the speed of sound, meaning that when you hear a gun fire, the bullet has already landed and hit its mark. So that would require someone who can control time and read the future.

2) Even if someone could move their blade in time to block the bullet it wouldn’t matter because bullets pass through metal pretty easily, it’s why we don’t wear metal armor in war, it doesn’t serve you any good against a bullet and in the same logic the sword would snap in half. Your sword would have to be 3 inches thick and then at that point you wouldn’t be wielding a sword you’d be wielding an iron slab with a handle on it. That and the weapon would then be around 70 pounds in weight making difficult to even move thing. Oh, and before somebody says that the density of their blade would make up for it, no it wouldn’t, it wouldn’t have enough mass to block the projectile still and really the sword would completely shatter from it.

3) Even if your sword was sharp enough to cut a bullet it wouldn’t matter because the bullet would be cut in half, which would mean you now have 2 projectiles coming for you and the angle of the blade wouldn’t separate the two halves enough the keep them from hitting you.

So yeah, 3 reasons why blocking a bullet is physically impossible. The reason why I’m a realism junky is because it’s the only fair way to do things. Really, people will say “If you can’t block bullets with swords it renders swords useless so it’s unfair” and really that’s why they were made! That and nobody, I repeat, NOBODY is fair about blocking bullets with swords. If you allow blocking bullets with swords then everybody just does that and it renders the guns useless.