Welcome to Gaia! ::

Hey, I'm your friendly, neighborhood Casual RPers Crew member (in charge of Level 1 - Casual RPs). Name's Ivaylo_Sai, Vay for short - Mr. Vay to those of you who take my classes in the Academy. I've been RPing several years now, since '98, and have played all kinds of games and characters so I'm open to most any sort of RP.

I'm available for questions and willing to tutor as one of the Official Tutors. I specialize in characters but can help with GMing and world building too.

Feel free to chat in this thread and I'll try to get back to you.

Excellent question and it really boils down to your level of dedication. Casualness has nothing to do with experience or even skill - it's all about the amount of effort you're willing to put into the game. Experience can be gained and skills taught but if you're not willing to put in the effort then you should stay with the casual players.

What do I mean by effort? Well, it's not about long posts. While longer posts do generally go hand in hand with higher dedication it's not the only indicator. I, myself, have a tendency to make short-ish posts but I post daily (if I've got someone to reply to) and I think about my posts. I don't just go with my gut reactions to get a post out there. I take the time to consider what my characters would do and weigh that against what would be best for the RP and (try to) come up with actions that fit my character without derailing the plot or stepping on other players. I make my characters the same way - with the good of the RP in mind. When I make RPs, characters, and posts I put in the effort to make them meaningful and well done (proofread). Unless I'm trying to play casually my RPs will have meat to them (not just sitting around a bar), my characters will have depth, and every post will matter. This takes work and if you're not willing to do it then you should avoid playing in RPs that expect it.

To sum, dedicated players work for the story, casual players are in it for the fun. There's nothing wrong with being a casual player, just like there's nothing wrong with playing amateur sports, but you could get hurt in the professional games.

Note: Casual players are NOT the same as beginners. While it's hard to tell the difference sometimes, and many beginners will become casual players, not all beginners will stay at this level. Those willing to put in the work can and should seek the experience and mentoring to move up into more advanced levels. And that's what the SDRP is all about.

Heh. . . yeah. That's for the advanced stuff though (which is intimidating).

Casual RPing is real easy and just basically directed conversation. You don't have to be a great writer, deep thinker, or even online very often to be a casual player. That's why we changed the name of our Level 1 to Casual instead of Beginner, because it's really not about skill or experience. It's about dedication and there is nothing wrong with only wanting to play casually. Probably better for your health wink