PSA How To RP PSA | Teen Ink

PSA How To RP PSA

October 14, 2020
By Anonymous

Hi! This is a brief explanation/PSA on how to roleplay, specifically written on a roleplay forum for a friend whose character is called Valerie, mine is Rachel.         

Firstly, one person starts, though the roleplay these characters are from is at a beginning, trying to find a totally different artifact(in wales, not South America) I will start with some text, for example, I might say(though this would be an interesting beginning)

"Rachel ran, trying to dodge the flaming arrows in the ancient Aztec temple, hunched protectively over our prize, the arrow somebody shot the sun with, that can hit anything at any distance. a large snake woman with the body of a serpent and the arms, shoulders, and head of a deceptively beautiful woman, the guardian of the temple and arrow, to try and bite Rachel with her venomous fangs, killing the girl and reclaiming the arrow. 'Quick, Valorie, catch!' Rachel yells, throwing her friend the legendary artifact." Then you pick up where I left off,

"Valerie jumps, stretching out her arm to snatch it out of the air whilst dodge another arrow, aimed at her and flaming. as she lands, the snake woman changes course, her catlike, slitted eyes closing in on her target, her green body slithering across the floor, her torse erect. her hair is a dark brown and her skin(the human bit) dusty brown, like the locals. two horrifying curved daggers of death hide in her mouth, pursed with determination. Valerie runs like she's never run before, as Rachel..."

Then you leave me to decide what I do. Notice how while I introduced the snake character, you elaborated and described her. well, I did, but if it were an actual roleplay you would. Very rarely, however, do you say what someone else's character does, even if you had said Rachel stands in the back, out of the path of arrows, instead ask what I do with statements like "meanwhile Rachel" then I would decide whether I try to get out, or distract her, or what(I'd try to distract her, but it probably wouldn't work, or maybe tell you to throw it to me when she's far away so we can make our way to the exit) but if I told you to throw it I wouldn't say

"Rachel calls, Valerie, throw it to me! and receives the arrow, changing the course of miss creepy, as we both head towards the exit gradually."
A, I didn't give you the choice of throwing or not, b, I said that we both move towards the exit, making this general statement about both of us, while it was my intent we run throwing it to and fro, to the exit, you never had a say. Instead, do something like this:                           

"'Valerie!' Rachel calls. 'throw it to me!'"                                                             

"Valerie leaps, just as the creepy snake is 5 feet away and coming fast, throwing it thru the air where it turns over and over in a mesmerizing, beautiful arc, the golden arrow gleaming midair on the tip as, in each spin, it turns toward the light. landing as the arrow reaches Rachel in beautiful synchrony, she takes the hard landing to her knees and keeps running."  notice that she didn't say Rachel caught it, that's up to Rachel, and Rachel can decide details. "Rachel runs back a bit, stretching to catch the arrow as golden as they rays of the sun into which it struck long ago. 'let's keep running towards the exit, we can throw it back and forth until then!' she cries. luckily, the serpent woman speaks ancient Aztec, not English."                   

"'Ok!' hollers back Valerie."                                                                         Now

Rachel can say they both do it because it's been agreed upon. as to the snake woman, who may figure it out and target one girl, depending on if her brain is human or serpentine, that's up to both to decide. NPCs are awkward to control because theyre shared. say Valerie planned that the woman was human minded, but Rachel said before she had a chance that it had the brain of a serpent, then she could be mad. perhaps she had an elaborate plan where it outwitted them. well, that's just the beauty of shared informal roleplays. instead of the sameness of your plan and everything working out for exactly what you knew you'd do, which is more like writing a book, you collaborate and are surprised, your chaotic weirdness makes it fun and the randomness you create together is hilarious. but the snake woman does have a snake brain, sorry, she got to it first. but don't make an effort to beat your companions to everything so you can control it, that ruins the game for everyone. similarly, embrace random, and let it go wherever. that's the fun of it. which is, really, the number one 'rule'. Always remember your playing to have fun, and really nothing else matters. Thanks for reading this, i hope it's helpful.


The author's comments:

A brief PSA of how to roleplay. i made a much shorter one for a friend and I thought it was worth sharing, so here it is. Also, think I should make the example a short story?


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