How to RP Properly

[EricM]

I have a friend who spends any minute she has roleplaying. She's talked to me about it so much that its finally sparked an interest and is something I'd like to try. So, I have a few questions before I get started.

1. What is the difference between a roleplay and a round robin?
2. How often should you check your roleplay?
3. What do you do if someone stops posting?
4. How do you properly end a roleplay?
5. What do you do if you find someone is completely taking over the roleplay?

 

[Mistearea]

A few things:

1: This is in the wrong section. Seeing as how it is a question about RPs in general, more or less, you should have posted this in the main RP section. That or in the RP Tavern.
2: Never even heard of a Round Robin so I can't touch that one.
3: It varries from one person to the next. Most have gotten to the point that we keep a tab for this site up at all times and pop in at random intervals. That or they don't bother once they figure out the posting patterns of other people.
4: Then we normally just send them a message to see if they are still in it. If not, they are removed and everyone goes about their daily lives. This doesn't normally happen unless the absence is over a week.
5: Once again, it varries. Some people just end their stories and that's it. Some leave it in a cliffhanger for a sequal, some don't. It just varries.
6: I don't see that very often, but out of the times that I have the person is normally confronted about it in the OOC thread. That or through VMs and PMs. But this doesn't happen much, that I've seen anyways, because everyone comes up with stories for their own characters to play out to develope them further.

Okay, so it ended up bein' more than a few. I hope it helps anyways.

 

[EricM]

Thanks! And sorry about posting in the wrong place, I'm still learning where to put things.

 

[Orion]

1. What is the difference between a roleplay and a round robin?

By 'Round Robin' I think you mean a collaborative writing activity being executed by people in turn or in a specific order? If that's the case, roleplaying here is more free-form. People can post at any time, though it's usually considered poor form for you and one or two other people to 'machinegun post' and just do loads of back and forth without other people getting a written word in edgewise.

2. How often should you check your roleplay?

That depends on the size of the cast and the sort of place it's set in. If it's, say, a Kingdom Hearts roleplay, people generally are more confident to act without supervision and so the manager's attention wouldn't as often be required. In an original roleplay, where things might move more slowly, people can sometimes require more manager attention than a canon or KH one specifically because it's in an unfamiliar world. Ultimately, you typically figure out what's best for you through just roleplaying and managing.

3. What do you do if someone stops posting?

If they're still active on the forum but not taking part in the roleplay, warn them that they'll imminently be removed. If they're inactive on the forum too, you should try getting onto them through some non-KHI method such as with emails or instant messaging.

4. How do you properly end a roleplay?

That's completely up to you! Sometimes it occurs when all the loose ends are tied up, or when the final battle has been fought and all the characters are ready to part ways or continue on into the unknown, or something like that. As with the medium as a whole, it's very free-form and open to however you want to do it. If a roleplay just sort of dies, most people generally consider it to be ended, and such a post announcing this in the corresponding OOC/discussion thread would just confirm this.

5. What do you do if you find someone is completely taking over the roleplay?

Speak with them directly, telling them that they're overstepping their bounds or directly doing something that shouldn't/can't be done in the roleplay. Failing that, contact me or Takushi Rena about it (I'm more active than her but she's around every few days) since we're the roleplaying moderators.