RP School - A Legend's Guide to Roleplaying.

Hello, everyone. Chris Legend here, and today, I'm going to give you a few secrets to improve your RPs.

These are simple things, but utilizing them will improve the quality of your roleplaying.


Now, the first one has already been covered in the Roleplaying School that Blake posted...I just want to add my own thoughts and ideas onto it.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Step 1: Detail makes a story.

As covered in the RP School, detail is important to telling your story. It sets the mood, and makes things understandable. However, for some people, putting this detail in can be a tough process. That's where I come in.

One of the greatest tools when trying to add detail is your imagination. When writing a RP, you should always try to picture the RP taking place in your head. Who's there? What are they wearing? What does the surrounding area look like? These are very important things. If you can imagine what the scene is like in your head, it will make it so much easier to change it into words.

For example, let's work with this line.

'Chris Legend walks into the office and sees Blake Lawson'

Try and picture it in your head. What does Blake's office look like? Is he sitting behind his desk, or is he pacing around the room? Is Chris angry? Sad? Happy? Does Blake seem surprised to see him? Knowing these things can help you put detail into the description. For this example, let's say that Blake has called Chris into his office for a meeting regarding his contract. Let's take a look at the improved version, that has taken form after picturing this scene in my head.

'Blake Lawson hears his door knob start to turn, and the door slowly opens, revealing Chris Legend behind it. Chris steps into the room, and takes the sunglasses off his head, folds them closed, and sticks them on the collar of his black t-shirt. He steps further into the room, and Blake greets him, inviting him to sit down. Chris nods, and sits down in the chair, prepared to make negotiations.'

Now try to imagine this scene being played out. It's much more descriptive, and seems like something you might actually see on TV.

Now, let's move onto the next step. This step was not covered in the RP School, and to me, this is one of the most important things about your character.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Step 2: Who are you?

When creating your character, there are several things that you can do to make them more interesting. While everyone knows the basic things, such as your hometown, and your gimmick, let me share a few things that you can do.

-Create a detailed backstory. Make it something interesting. It will give you, and others, more to work with when writing RPs. There are several details, that are easy to add, such as education, or previous job experience. Let's use this as an example.

'Chris Legend was raised in Denver, CO. At the age of 18, he begin wrestling, and has done it ever since.'

This is boring, and tells NOTHING useful about your character. Let's spice it up a bit.

'Chris Legend was born in Hardin, KY, but moved to Denver, CO at the age of six (1)when his parents split up. (2)After attending a wrestling show at the age of 16, he took a passion to wrestling. At the age of 18, he had his first try out for a company, and (3)the scout thought he had talent, and gave him the job. He won his first title in that company, and (4)went on to win many more in others. At one point, he gave up being a wrestler, (5)and instead, chose to run his own wrestling company.

There are many more things I could have added, but for the sake of time, let's just take a detailed look at what i did add.

1) This tells us that when he was younger, his parents split up. This could indicate a sore spot in his history, one that may provoke violence, sadness, and any other array of emotions.

2) This tells us how he become interested in wrestling. Everyone has their own story. That is important. Someone may wrestle, simply because their parent's wanted them too.

3) He was talented as a young star, which would pave the road to his future success. This is also something very common in someone who has a large ego.

4) This simply shows us that he has had a very successful career, winning several titles along the way.

5) Former job experience. Not only has he wrestled, but he has managed a wrestling company. This can lead to some characteristics in his personality that lead him away from causing trouble for management.

Now, let's cover one other very important thing you can do for your back story.

-Add some connections.

Now, I know that everyone thinks that they are the 'cool lone wolf' and they don't need anyone to be successful. But, like it or not, there were people in your characters life that influenced their decisions. This could be in the form of parents, siblings, friends, former bosses, mentors, etc.

It can really add some detail to your character if you make up some other people in your characters life. These characters can make appearances in your RPs as NPCs, and help your character make a decision about something.

It never hurts to have some friends.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And for now, that's all I have to offer. I hope that every person that reads this can take something away from it, and improve their RPs.