1. Wasn't exactly sure what to call this, but this is some basic guidelines for semi-literate to literate roleplays. I see these guidelines used quite often, and I feel we could do with a full explanation of them.
2. If this has been made before I really do apologize, I'm not trying to steal anyone's glory from making this already, I just couldn't find it already done and I wanted a tutorial to hand over to new FH people when they join my roleplay. So if this has been made twenty thousand times
please don't kill me.This is a small guidebook on three basic rules that most roleplays follow these days. It can be hard to explain and understand them, so here's a tutorial you can easily chuck onto your roleplay's rulebook.---
First things first, let's go over the issue with chat character limit.Because we can only write a certain amount in the chatbox, this has lead to some shortcomings when someone wants to make quite a long post. It's always fun and nice to be descriptive, but ah, how can we get past that small character limit?
Well, we use what I call 'marks of continuation and completion' to show when someone is still posting and continuing in the next post, and to show when they are done and the next person may go.
These marks can be anything along the lines of -
c- , >> , -con- , (c), anything to show that the current and last poster plans to carry on their post in the next chat post. But how do we know when they're done, and the next person can go? Why,
marks of completion of course! These marks are anything along the lines of
-d-, << , -don- , (d), anything to show that the current and last poster is now done and the next user may post.Here is an example of what this may look like in game.
But one may be wondering, why is this important? Why is it used?Because of post-cutting, and post order.Post-cutting is when it's clear someone is continuing their post still, noted with marks of continuation, and then someone suddenly posts in between and cuts them off. Don't worry though, most people are understanding, and accidents happen all of the time! However,
it is most roleplays preference that post-cutting is avoided.Post-cutting is okay in certain circumstances, though. Here's some examples of that!1. If the current poster has stated that it's okay to cut them off, helping speed along a roleplay session.
2. If you have no part in a current roleplay session that someone's posting in and you're roleplaying with a completely different person that isn't currently posting, it might be fine to go ahead and post. Still, in this instance, it's best to just ask permission, not everyone wants interruptions in their posting.
A general rule of thumb is just never post-cut someone you're currently interacting with!Now you might be wondering, how can one avoid post-cutting? How do I know when it is my turn to post?
Some roleplays use a little nifty thing we call post-order.Post-order is simply assigning an order to current roleplay participators so they know exactly when they should go. With a post-order made before each roleplay session, you can let everyone get equal speaking and action opportunity. Without post-order, the fast typers get to go the most, and that's a bit unfair.
An example of this is establishing max, tom, and sally is the order. Max will post, and after a mark of completion, Tom will post. Sally can post after Tom completes, and then the order restarts.
If you have trouble remembering post-order, you can ask someone to note it at the top of their in game bio, and write it down somewhere like your own bio or a piece of paper.Hopefully these three guidelines will help you get into roleplaying more, good luck anyone seeking to utilize them!
