Manga Mix - The Chemical Makeup of a Role Playing Post

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Manga Mix :: Starting Out :: RP Help :: The Chemical Makeup of a Role Playing Post

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Topic: The Chemical Makeup of a Role Playing Post (Read 28 times)

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The Chemical Makeup of a Role Playing Post
« Thread Started on Sept 14, 2008, 3:57pm »

Role playing is pretty intuitive; you’ve likely been doing it since you were a child. When you put role playing on a message board, however, there is a formula that should be followed so that it is easier to know what someone else means, and it is ultimately easier to have fun. That what this thread is about; you will learn how to formulate your posts so that everyone not only understands what you mean, but will also be impressed with you! Feel free to post any questions you my have in this thread or PM me with questions so that I may help you. Before we begin, I will take a post I made in actual role play to use an example.

Quote:

As Fox kissed him, Blue Mage felt a sort of energy welling inside him again, in a way that cured him on his bedraggled feeling after being kissed by Tyrinia. Unlike the kiss from Tyrinia, this kiss made was fuelled by mutual love between two people, and elated him. Blue Mage kissed Fox back, letting her know the extent of his love. When their lips finally parted, Blue Mage looked into Fox's eyes and said, "I love you Fox; no matter where my emotions bring me, you always take me back to this familiar feeling. Of course I feel better."

Okay, so it’s a romantically fuelled post, but it is a prime example as to the main components of a post. Mind you it does not perfectly exemplify every component, but more on that as we come to it.

The Two Main Components

A role playing post comes in two very basic and very important components. They are known as narrative and dialogue. I will describe them below.

Narrative: this is what people read to understand how your character feels, thinks, and acts. Narrative is everything that is outside the quotation marks. In the example, narrative is used to describe how Blue Mage feels physically, emotionally, how he felt before the kiss, and what it was about the kiss that made him feel better. It also describes the action he took, which was to kiss Fox back. The purpose of narrative is to help the player understand how things are happening, and what the character sounds or looks like, or even how the background looks and sounds like. Narrative is very important, because it allows the other player to react to your post in an appropriate fashion.

Dialogue: this is what the character says, writes, and even thinks, to show the reader and the other characters what he or she thinks. Dialogue is everything inside the quotation marks. How the character says something, or whether or not he or she thought the dialogue can be displayed by the words just before the quotation marks. You can also differentiate thought dialogue from speaking dialogue by making everything inside the quotation marks italicized. The purpose of dialogue is to let the player and his or her character understand how the character feels in his or her own words. In the example, dialogue is used by Blue Mage to tell Fox how he feels, and to respond to her question, which was, “Are you okay now?” Dialogue is very important, because without it, the other character won’t be able to communicate with your character.

The Subcomponents

Narrative and dialogue are so basic, that they are further broken up into components. In other words, there are different types of narrative, and different types of dialogue. These components will be described below.

Narrative
The different types of narrative are: character action, character description, and background description.
Character Action: this is quite simply put: the actions that your character makes during the post. In the narrative of the example, Blue Mage had three actions; kissing Fox, looking into her eyes, and talking to her. Yes, the act of speech is an action; what is said is dialogue. Character actions are important, because your character is not made of cardboard. Your character will move, do things, and react to things. If your character did not do things, role playing would be boring.
Character Description: anything that you need to describe about your character can be done in the narrative, and it is important because it lets the other player know how your character looks, feels, or how your character says something. This can be done in dialogue as well, but it is also possible, and good, to do this in the narrative. In the example, you can tell from the dialogue what Blue Mage thought of kissing Tyrinia, his emotions about both kisses, his physical response, and his inner most thoughts. Describing thoughts in narrative is possible, because, well, have you ever thought, “I’m angry because this jerk told me off and I have this tingling self doubt about myself.”? No, rather you think, “I’m angry.” Narrative tells the other player what in your character’s thought process is making your character angry, things that your character just would not think.
Background Description: your character affects the world around him or her, and it’s good to explain this. Granted, there is nothing in the example that exemplifies this, but it is important to mention in posts in which your character does affect the background. Like say, your character in a fit of rage kicks a barrel and destroys it. Describe how the wood splinters, how dust kicks up, and where the barrel lands, and how that affects that part of the scenery. You most likely won’t be doing a lot of this, unless you are running a game (more on that in a future post).

Dialogue
The different types of dialogue are: speech, thought, and written word. These are all ways in which your character communicates to other characters.
Speech: trust me; you are going to be doing a lot of this. Speech is the main method by which all people communicate with others, and unless your character is mute, speech will be how your character communicates as well. In the example, speech is used by the character Blue Mage to express his feelings to Fox, and to respond to her speech. It is a very natural process, and there is no need to fret too much about what the technicalities of speech.
Thought: sometimes people tend to write inner dialogue where the character thinks in the same manner of which he or she would speak. This is perfectly fine, and it is a tool that allows the other player understand what your character is thinking; though it is looked down on if your character responds to another character’s thought. Thought is the best way to let another player know what a character thinks, in that character’s own words. The example does not display thought in dialogue.
Written Word: it is still considered speech if a note your character wrote is read by someone else. In this case, you would specify that everything inside the quotation marks is on the note. For all intents and purposes, it is speech, but since it is written, not every character can know what your character wrote. It is a tool for characters to use, not players. Use it well. The example does not show written word.

There, now you know everything about the components and subcomponents of a role playing post! With the information disclosed in this post, you will be able to write more engaging role play posts, and the experience of everyone involved with be increased because of it. Now go forth and role play and have fun doing it!

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