Bandcampboy’s guide on how to roleplay in a literate fashion.
Hello everyone. I have several years of experience in literate RPing and when I came here to start an RP I was told that many people do not know how to do this. So here I am to help you guys out. When playing in a literate RP, your job is to make it seem like a book is being written. You are telling the story of your character’s part in the world he or she has been placed in.
The biggest key to this is in the details. You want to have a rich and fulfilling story for others to read and respond to. You DO NOT want to use emotes or describe actions without complete sentences.
Ex: Hello. Jumps up and down. Waves at Azurin.
Or
“Hello there” *laughs*
You want to use quotation marks to represent when your character speaks, just like in a book. Here is an example of how to do this properly. Keep in mind that you always want to refer to your character in the third person.
Christophe noticed Azurin across the street and waved to him while jumping up and down to get his attention. “Hey Azurin! Over here.”
See? Isn’t that much nicer? Now let’s get really into it. The real trick to being good at literate RPs is in the details. Always squeeze as much out of each phrase, sentence, and paragraph as possible. Let’s see what we can really do to this scenario.
Christophe walked down the main market street of Duerger City. He hated coming here, even for business. The sun blazed over head and no matter how much he wiped off his brow, more sweat just came to replace what Christophe had cleared away. Just as the desert heat seemed like it might be too much for the young shepherd, something familiar caught his eye. Through the crowd across the street, Christophe noticed a long dark blue jacket. Curious if it could be who he thought, the intrigued spellblade moved deeper into the crowd. Within seconds he was sure that the blue coated man was surely his old friend Azurin. Christophe began waving furiously to get his fellow spellblade’s attention. “Hey Azurin, over here!” Christophe could only hope Azurin would hear him, or else he would look like a complete fool waving his arms around in the middle of this crowded street.
Holy cow! You see how much we can do to really set the scene for this story out of such a simple scenario. It’s a little more work but it is so much more rewarding and far more fun to read. Not to mention it is much more clear to new roleplayers just entering the scene what is happening.
Now before we wrap up here there are a few things we must discuss. There are a few things you must be very careful not to do when in a literate RP, especially when it involves characters fighting.
-Do not god-mod: This means making your character the best at everything and can do anything you can do better. No character in invincible, especially at their start. Every character has their weaknesses and their things they are not good at. This is what makes the RP fun.
-Do no auto hit: This means claiming that you hit your opponent in a fight no matter what and they can’t get out of it. Once you make a move, it is their job to respond to it as best they can. Make your attacks descriptive but leave them open ended so the other player can react. It might look something like this. (I’ll keep it less elaborate for now)
A rune on Christophe’s broadsword created a small burst of yellow light as he slashed his blade through the air in Azurins direction. A blade of wind was quickly created and began flying towards Christophe’s opponent at a rapid speed. If the attack hit it would surely create a large cut wherever it landed.
The other person might respond with:
Azurin saw the yellow flash and knew a wind spell was coming his way. The air blade was obviously too fast for him to hope of countering with a spell so he quickly decided to dodge. The young spellblade dove to his right in hopes of avoiding the cutting wind. He was not quite fast enough he realized as he felt a sharp pain on his left shin and looked down to see blood spilling into the sand below.
Azurin would then go on to make whatever offensive move he wished or do whatever else he chose. See how even something as simple as dodging was interesting and descriptive? Do not let fighting be an excuse to become illiterate. It’s boring if you just write “he dodged” or “he paried the attack”. At least make it interesting.
It is also important to note that you cannot always avoid harm. For the sake of the story and keeping it interesting, go ahead and take a hit every once in a while, even if it’s just minor scrapes and bruises.
I really hoped this helped you to understand literate RPing better. If you have any questions please comment in this thread and I will try to answer you as best I can and even add that information into the original post for future readers. If literate RP is something that interests you, please take a look at joining mine and misamisa’s RP called Krasus. Thank you!
