Ambious' Instructional and Information text on The Art of Roleplaying

Introduction
I have seen Roleplaying taught and applied in many ways, from Roleplaying in MSN chatrooms to Roleplaying on World of Warcraft RP Servers. From this, I have learned one general fact: Roleplaying is not something that is better due to where it occurs, but the quality it has. Now, when I say quality, I do not mean the fancy setups or grammatically correct and complicated sentences some choose to use. Nor do I meant the accents and unique techniques some people tend to use. When I say quality, I mean how well they comminicate what they mean, which can be helped via such things as accents, articulate techniques, and large sentences.

The Concepts of Roleplaying are elementary basics of what the quality of an RP is. The stronger and more used the concepts, the higher the quality. I have touched on one concept already: communication. The others would be depth, and consistency. Now, though those terms may not seem to make any sense, once I elaborate, you should see a whole new outlook on RP'ing, or at least a more defined one.

• Communication
  This is THE MOST IMPORTANT Concept of Roleplaying. Without communication, everything communication, everything falls apart. Now, communication doesn't imply advanced literary techniques. It just means being clear and assured of what you said to avoid awkward misunderstandings. Communication normally boils down to about two things:
  
  
  • The first would be making sure your sentences flow appropriately. Example being, make sure your pronouns and nouns are understandable. If you repeat his/her and it's for the duration of an RP, some may misunderstand. But yes, obviously said pronouns exist for a reason, but at least try to keep them obvious to what noun they refer to and make sure to only go as far as a post or two with a single pronoun; even if it would be clear and there's only one person, repeat their name if it grows lengthy.
  • The Second would be making sure that you're grammatically correct. Now, I don't mean be a hardcore grammar nazi and put ninty thousand commas in a five-word sentence just to be perfectly correct. What I mean is make sure what you do write is correct. Basically, don't go beyond your bounds if you aren't sure.
  
  
  Making sure your sentence flows and that you are not incorrect will help in assuring good communication. But, overall, you need to make good communication second nature; becuase, if you do nothing but spellcheck over and over again, your RP'ing will simply go to slow to be appropriate. I state communication being the most important concept for that reason; it needs to be your most finely tuned skill. And, a good rule for good communication, if you read over it or while you're writing something it occurs to you that there might be a problem, attempt to fix it immediately-- never "hope" they get it.
  
• Depth
  I use the term "depth" to determine just how well-though-out a character is. The tiniest perks, quirks, patterns, flaws, ect. All those add up to the sum of a character's depth. Now, just having them isn't it all though. How they're applied, or the conditions they're set off by can add just as much to depth as a whole new quirk could. And single quirks don't just do it either, sometimes two acting in unison or effecting one another can add to Depth. Depth is one of the larger contributors to Roleplaying Skill simply due to the fact it's the most miscellanious. Depth is the icing on a cake, not needed but it makes it savored oh-so much more. Now, I consider there to be about three levels of Depth:
  
  • Level I Depth
    

    Quote :

    John looks to the clock, a common activity for him.

  • Level II Depth
    

    Quote :

    John looks to the clock during his math teacher's lecture, a common acivity for him when he is bored.

  • Level III Depth
    

    Quote :

    John looks to the clock during his math test, a common activity for him when he is stressed, something he is especially due to he has a fear of tests.

  
  Anything past Level III Depth I find excessive, and excessive depth deminishes from Roleplaying Skill, in actuality. Giving so much information can loose other Roleplayers' attention and become useless to the original point. A masterful user of Depth can effectively put the correct amount of information into a simple post and keep it to point as well as informative about the character, which is what depth is about. Giving implied information.
  
• Consistency
  This Roleplaying concept is the hardest to attain. Consistency involves making sure you always Roleplay your character how he is meant to be roleplaying and not going outside character. Consistency also involves character development, and is the embodiment of that in Concept-form. A character that is roleplayed well is consistent until he develops, which is what makes this worthy of being a concept. Now, the reason Consistency is the hardest concept is actually due to it's simplicity. Consistency can be described in a sentence that is essentially all of what I explained in a non-broken-down format.
  

  Quote :

  To Roleplay a character consistently, you have to make sure you stick to your character at all times, including when they transition from static to dynamic or vice verca.

The relationships of Roleplaying Concepts
Finally, how Roleplaying Concepts work. Communication effects Depth and Consistency simply by being how they exist. Depth would be useless if others couldn't understand the implied information and consistency would be worthless if not noticed. Depth has a direct effect on the other two concepts by simply making them harder the more of it you have; by adding depth, you make writing communicating harder by giving more information and you increase the difficultly of maintaining and keeping consistency in mind. And, finally, Consistency is what makes a character seem them. Moreover, a character's consisency is how you recognize them; keeping their depth, the quirks and ticks, existent while keeping you always mindful of ways to communicate the consistency.

Chapter Four
Combat and Actions

Combat
Some people roleplay just for the awesome fights that ensue, while others view it as the most trivial part of a roleplay. Either way, Combat is a large part of roleplaying, I find that it always is. There's not much to combat, it's fighting in text format. The biggest parts to fighting would be transition and the level of character control allowed.

Good Combat Transitioning turns fighting into a turn based system. Combat Transitioning is probably the simplest and first thing beginers pick up on. During Transitioning, you simply want to make your combat-related actions flow smoothely and give your opponent(s) proper time to react.

Character Control levels vary setting-to-setting, but normally you can depend on certian things, such as an elbow bending inward and not out, as to character control. Character Control will always be a contreversial, complicated, and difficult subject in my opinion, so it will be something all roleplayers will simply have to get the feel of.

Actions
Acting in a roleplay is a complicated thing in itself. Every action will most likely have a reaction, an effect, do something to the setting in which will react to the character. In short, though, this, like combat, is something all roleplayers will just have to get the feel of and, moreover, see is just as realistic as the real world.

Chapter Five
General Roleplaying Etiquette

Quite simply, it is paramount one is proper to his peers during roleplaying. Be courteous when discussing matters, and you could be a Rank V talking to a Rank I, you should treat them as your equal unless you hold moderater or sub-moderator status. Moreover, you should never abuse your powers, control others' characters, or just plain be a jerk.

Moderator-Player Relationship

This is a very important part of roleplaying. The Moderator control the setting- the entire world a character is in and that gives them a lot of power. But, that does not give them anything they should not have. Quite Frankly, all roleplaying moderators only have the power to control the setting and their own characters within it, although that gives them a lot. Past this, it is solely up to the moderator themself to decide how they use their powers, becuase if they abuse them, it is rare others will roleplay with them.