Roleplaying Guide: part 1, improve your post content and count

Describe surroundings: This is so everyone else in the topic gets a good feel for the area and so you can refer back to keep consistency this also saves people having to research the area or at least recognize the part you're talking about just remember to keep it from your character POV

Explain why you're there: There's nothing more annoying then people who are just in places for the sake of being there. So make up a reason for it even if its a tad ludicrous its better than nothing. It also gives people an idea of how you plan for the topic to go.

Your thoughts on the current place: Potentially you can put your description of the place here and then just your characters opinion of it but it doesn't have to be blatant either, subtlety is good and as you get past the first hurdle of RP'ing you can develop your skills further.

Appearance: Describe your character this makes Rp for others easier as they then can refer to your post in order to describe you and if their good enough they'll reword your description so it's not just copy and paste. By providing others with the information to improve their own RP your topic will look better and more people will want to join.

Do something: Though speech is not necessary unless an NPC character is involved or your talking to yourself you can still run, jump or whatever. None of you seem to have a problem with this aspect merely the detail in which you describe your movements, remember the thesaurus is your best friend so use it and then dictionary to check that the word you've found means what you want. Whenever I'm stuck I always find the thesaurus and search for a good fitting word. A large vocabulary shows intelligence, we like intelligence.

Weather and time: Again there’s nothing more annoying then not knowing what time of day it is or the weather when you enter a topic. Is it sunny, is it dark? Is the sun beating down on your character bringing sweat to their brow or is the wind chilling the bone marrow itself evoking shivers from your characters body. Again there is more subtlety then " It was windy today". Remember description and setting make an RP, people will appreciate you setting it out. Even if they don't voice it it can make their turn easier.

Grammar, punctuation and spelling: It doesn't need to be absolutely perfect grammar wise but if you have firefox its worth using the spell check feature. Capital letters look pretty at the beginning of sentences and full stops tell us where to breathe, commas make sense of a sentence but apart from that anything else is ok.

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The intro should be one of the longest posts in the topic, if all of the above are included it will lengthen your post substantially and the mods will like you more so your creations will be approved quicker generally.

I'm going to use these 3 as examples and I really don't care if they are yours and you get offended. Take it as constructive criticism.

Typical bad one:

Spoiler:

So whats wrong with this? Everything. Ok so he mentioned where it was. Thats about it. No description of the place, what it looks like and the like. No reason why he's there. Same case for this fox, no explanation why the hell that happened, where it came from and all that jazz. We have one opinion but no reason to back it up therefore it could be considered worthless.
Ok he 'smaped' his fingers, wow the sheer excitement that this evokes in me really can't be contained. Sarcasm. Is it night? Is it day? Maybe theres a snow storm coming in that i'm not aware of? Then the spelling is so awful that i wouldn't go near the topic with a 10ft barge pole.
An overall 1/ 14

Ok but not complete:

Spoiler:

Ok, she has said that it's an arena, no real detail about i though. Again we have no motive. We have one thought here. Kudos for the detail on a sentence or two even if the action is squashed into one part. No sense of time or environment here spelling and punctuation are ok.
Overall 5/14

What you should aim for:

Spoiler:

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With this lot a lot are repeated but not all needed. Across this little series you will see a lot of the same thing simply because most hold the same aspects but how much you put in in the rest are up to you and this is merely a list of what you can add to make a post more successful.

Describe surroundings: By doing this it adds depth and shows the author that you have read their description and so you know what your doing. Making your surroundings detailed gives the RP a more realistic quality and your posts more purpose and respect.

So lets have an example;

Spoiler:

We must remember to keep to the authors descriptions though not copy them, the best way to do this is with a thesaurus.
Just remember to check he words you don't know in a dictionary.
So now we know where to get a multitude of words from lets make our own version of the description.

Spoiler:

Explain why you're there: This is one of the most important aspects of your intro. There's nothing more annoying then people who are just in places for the sake of being there. So make up a reason for it even if its a tad ludicrous its better then nothing. As long as it makes sense you should be okay, but remember to read the author intro carefully for ideas.

Your thoughts on the current place: Potentially you can put your description of the place here and then just your characters opinion of it but it doesn't have to be blatant either, subtlety is good and as you get past the first hurdle of RP'ing you can develop your skills further. This isn't a hugely important part but adding it in will lengthen your post and give you something else to write about. Use the authors descriptions to be certain your having an opinion for something that exists in the scene.

Appearance: Describe your character this makes Rp for others easier as they then can refer to your post in order to describe you and if they're good enough they'll reword your description so it's not just copy and paste. By providing others with the information to improve their own RP the topic will look better and more people will want to join.This is nearly as important as your reason simply because this will be the basis other RP'ers in the thread will use to describe you in their own posts, exaggerate things if you must but don't repeat the same words over and over. If your stuck use a thesaurus but remember make sure you don't sound like mr/mrs perfect the author will not like it if you upstage them.

Do something: Though speech is not necessary unless an NPC character is involved or your talking to yourself you can still run, jump or whatever. None of you seem to have a problem with this aspect merely the detail in which you describe your movements, remember the thesaurus is your best friend so use it and then dictionary to check that the word you've found means what you want. Whenever I'm stuck I always find the thesaurus and search for a good fitting word. A large vocabulary shows intelligence, we like intelligence. Plus it will help your English in school.
At this stage you might observe the author or another character here if they aren't hidden observation is a good thing to put in an intro as it shows you've taken account of the other people in the thread but be careful to use only what they've described themselves with and only the actions they have executed themselves. I personally hate when people make assumptions of my character based on something I've put in thoughts but with no physical suggestion of it so do take care to read through their post and observe and react accurately.

Weather and time: Again like the surrounding description this follows the same kind of thing though i included it within my description its easy to slot in anywhere just don't make the mistake of the author making it a light snow and you saying its a blizzard for example.

Grammer, punctuation and spelling: It doesn't need to be absolutely perfect grammer wise but if you have firefox its worth using the spell check feature. Capital letters look pretty at the beginning of sentences and full stops tell us know where to breathe, commas make sense of a sentence but apart from that anything else is ok.

Watch out for excessive action: This is when some people use chain upon chain of actions to make up for lack of detail to build line count. Its incredibly annoying and can be confusing at times for example;

Spoiler:

There is another mistake in here, can anyone spot it?

Bob, he, bob, he.
Another annoying thing that can be seen in the above example is using he excessively or the characters name. A good way to combat this habit is by using your characters traits. For example my own character is half demon so I can use a variation of Celox, she, the hybrid, the demoness, the half demon, the female, teen. By using a variety of them will improve your sentences greatly making your post more interesting.

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Anyway on with the quick tips for extending your post.

There's lots of things that have already been covered about developing your posts to a greater length without losing any of the detail that makes a good post great but here's a few more

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This is a post that has been partially made up before the person you are RP'ing with has posted. In a way these can be quite difficult to construct because you don't know how your opponent is going to react but these are best for situations were your not in direct contact with each other between posts as when you are it makes it quite difficult to slip them in. Never the less its not impossible. Hell one or two of my posts are completely prep ones, you see these when my opponent hasn't posted yet but theres alot of activity around. eg.

Spoiler:

Like if we take one of my posts as an example i'll show you which part was constructed before hand thats not an entire prep.
Quote:

Spoiler:

You can also try and predict your opponents actions and make up several courses of action and show these as character thoughts on possible decisions to make and the like.
By making a prep part of your post it makes use of some of the time wasted waiting for your opponent to post. If you can't find nothing more to add leave it aside and add bits now and again so by the time your opponent has posted your already well on your way to completing your post.

So lets take a quick reminder of content that fills up a post nicely:

Surroundings: Plenty of opportunity for detail here.

Reason for being in there: Shows other you're not just popping in here and there for post count and if you are well it's less obvious.

Thoughts: Gives an insight to your character.

Action: Adds interest to the scene and something for the next person to go on.

Weather and Time: More opportunity for detail.

Just remember when your starting to topic all of the above are essential.

Recap over.

~Part 2