Two weeks ago, we discussed what roleplaying is. In short, roleplaying is a
combination of acting and writing done for pure enjoyment. It is unlike
roleplaying for sport (such as DECA) in that it is not a competition--
rather, a method of recreation.

But roleplaying can be further subdivided than just competitive and
recreational. Among the recreational that I refer to, there are different
types of roleplaying. We spoke of it being a mixture of acting and writing;
but how much writing over acting makes it something else? If you go at it
less like an actor and more like a writer, what would it be then?

Throughout my experiences I have noticed that the four different types of
roleplaying sort of rely on this mixture, ranging all the way from pure
acting to pure writing. Here's a chart!

Writing<--->Acting

Textual RP -- Software RP -- Pen and Paper RP -- LARP

All involve some method of either acting or writing. LARPing, for example,
often involves written rules. Textual RP involves having to get into the
mindset of another character in real time and, therefore, has a bit of
acting.

But what do all these terms I'm randomly throwing out there mean? Let's go
in and define them a bit, shall we?

TEXTUAL RP

Hanging all the way down the scale is textual RP. This is actually the type
of RP I started with when I was 11, roleplaying Claire Redfield in a
medieval style tavern (no joke). One will find this in chat rooms, through
AIM and MSN, anywhere they can send text to one another.

Textual RP is the exchange and description of character interactions without
a visual to go along with it. Sure, certain people may have "drawn their
character" (or taken images from elfwood/google/deviantart to show their
character) and have an image to go along with it, but 98% of the exchange is
all through typed out words. This form of RP is most common on forums and
chat programs.

Roleplaying in this manner involves lots of literary thought. It isn't just
about writing out one's actions--it requires making them interesting in
order to catch someone's attention. One also has to be able to read fast--in
a public RP setting, there could be possibly dozens of these pargraphs
heading straight at him at once, and so picking out the proper one can prove
difficult.

How does one get into this? Oftentimes nowadays, it is more of a private
affair. Two people talk to each other and mention, "Hey! Wanna roleplay?"
(alright, maybe not that emphatically). It can even be a small group of
individuals, uniting to tell a common story. Back in the day it required a
bit more advertising. One had to make sure both their character, their
character's story and their style of writing were interesting and amusing.
This also made it rather difficult for a quiet, anti-social character to be
noticed.

While I won't divulge into the ettiquiete of textual RP (that comes later),
the exchange of text requires quite a bit of self-control of the person
typing it out. Furthermore, since there is no visual it requires the most
imagination and thought of the other person. I have found that this style,
in my opinion, has the most immersion. Unlike the other three forms of RP,
there is no going against what your character is--whatever you type out is
what your character is doing, because nothing else exists to go against
that. This is incredibly prevalent in Software RP, the next step.

SOFTWARE RP

Though a confusing name, this is the next step up. Now, there's a visual.
This kind of RP involves RPing in a game environment--primarily MMOs such as
Final Fantasy XI, World of Warcraft, Asheron's Call, etc. Many MMOs nowadays
actually have specific servers dedicated to roleplayers (though the amount
of roleplayers actually on these servers can vary).

Software RP is the first step of visual imagery working together with
textual descriptions. Your character is -there-, in a world. The benefits of
this are that it is far less work in terms of what you actually have to
describe. If your avatar is seated in an inn room, you don't have to type
that out--a person can just look and see that clearly.

There are subtle things, however. Very rarely (actually, I'm pretty sure it
doesn't exist yet) do MMOs allow you to emote facial expressions or subtle
actions. These still have to be typed out, and treated like textual RP. I've
found, though, that it's always better to show your actions rather than type
them out. Sure you can't just emote gently caressing a girl's face, or
mouthing out subtle words (sounds hot). But you can emote something simple
such as a "wave."

How does one get into this? Oftentimes a lot easier than getting into
textual RP. Get on an MMO, get into an RP server and go wander around a
crowded area. If you make yourself noticed or join into it, then you're
bound to get something out of it. It can be a bit tricky though in that you
will occasionally meet someone who either does not roleplay or hates
roleplay (referred to as "griefers"). Merely ignore them and move on.

That is not the only problem with this form of RP, however. Oftentimes
people desire more customization with their characters. Accepting something
like a scar on the face when the actual avatar doesn't have one is fine, but
I've seen plenty of people who have something like a tail or cat ears or
angel wings when visually, it is absolutely nonexistant. Furthermore,
fighting is often a debated as many people desire to fight textually while
their visual characters merely stand there, doing nothing. I have found out
of the three types of RP I have experienced, this is the most jarring to
suspension of disbelief.

PEN AND PAPER RP

Now we're getting way more towards acting. Rather than forcing a merely
avatar with limited motions on a computer screen to act, we have ourselves.
Not our whole body, as the majority of the time one is seated (and that gets
into LARPing).

Pen and Paper RP (oftentimes in D&D, though it can be extended to other pen
and paper games) involves vocalization, something nonexistant in the other
two forms of RP. The only "writing" really involved are the rules and the
texts you need to know for barriers, as well as the dice thrown in there to
add a random spice to the mix. It can involve minimal acting (such as a
character placing a hand on another character's shoulder can be acted out by
the players), but generally extreme actions are described ("I walk over to
the door and bash it open with my mighty greataxe" is certainly not acted
out, though that would seriously be the most hardcore thing on the planet).
The Game Master (referred to as the GM, or the DM or what have you) can also
dictate actions your character does from time to time, though the more
control the GM exhibits over one's character the more likely they are to get
pissed off.

While not as jarring to suspension of disbelief as software RP, there are
still minor issues to get over. My boyfriend once said about D&D, "You can
never make a character more intelligent than yourself." In a situation like
textual RP or software RP where you aren't physically there, you can stall.
You can delay. You can think out your responses and sound far more
intelligent. When you're physically there and need to think on the fly? It's
a lot more difficult.

I'll bring up an actual example this time. I have a character named
Eredritch Breathforged, played both in a D&D campaign (pen and paper) and
World of Warcraft (software RP). In the format he was originally created in,
he is a wordy walking thesaurus, arrogant, princely, and a bit ignorant. In
D&D he is an ignorant moron, quick to say the first thing on his mind. This
is due to the fact that he was adapted to fit a format I could roleplay him
in. In software RP, I have time to think of way to word his sentences, look
up new words to get him to sound arrogant and haughty. In pen and paper RP,
I don't have time for that. When a person asks him a question, I need to
immediately respond in the form I feel the character would most likely
respond in. I am not a walking thesaurus myself. I cannot quickly think of
wordy responses on the fly. Therefore, I had to adapt the same character to
a different environment.

The ability to act also greatly assists pen and paper roleplay, whereas the
inability to act is definately detrimental. In an acting textbook I read a
while ago, it states that part of the job of an actor is to give cues for
the other actors to play off of. A player roleplaying a character can give
totally wrong cues. They may be pissed off that they didn't get the doritos
(or something of the such), and therefore play their characters with their
own emotions despite it not making any sense in the least.

Other problems are a personal bias. This is actually prevalent in all forms
of roleplay, but especially so when you are face to face with the individual
(such as in LARPing and pen and paper). Personal bias is when an individual
unconsciously (or consciously) metagames (using out of character information
in character) against another person's character, merely because they don't
like them. I used to show this by issuing this challenge: roleplay your
character having a love affair with a character who is played by a person
you hate. It's damn near impossible.

I've spoken a bit too much about pen and paper RP. So let's go ahead and
just get into the next section.

LARP

I will admit that I have not ever gone into LARPing. LARP itself is an
acronym, standing for "Live Action Roleplaying." Occasionally it involves
written rules, much like pen and paper RP (I believe WotD is a primary LARP
game)... But unlike pen and paper, you are not sitting down. You are up, you
are moving about. And you are acting.

While, again, I have not gone into LARPing, from what I have heard any
actions that your character would do (save for extreme actions) you actually
go ahead and do. If your character would pick up a can of salt, you don't
describe it--go find the salt and actually pick it up. This is the quickest
way of explaining information, as there is no barrier of text, but at the
same time it allows more of the flaws of acting to come through.

Furthermore, there are certain actions you -cannot- do through acting. Take
fighting, for example. Taking a sword and cutting off your opponents head is
extraordinarily illegal (and kind of dick).

I have heard of several different ways to go about LARP fighting (such as rolling dice, or sparring), but all of them, in a sense, break a bit of the immersion role. Not to mention several games recommend limiting contact between two beings who would probably get in a fight. Take, for example, Vampire of the Masquerade. Again, I have no hands-on experience, but supposedly interaction between vampires and vampire hunters are frowned upon. While this is understandable in a logistics sense, it limits the player and creativity.

How do you get into LARPing? From what I have seen, either through signing up online and joining a group or finding it in a comic store. Groups, however, tend to be pretty tight-knit, and so you may find yourself the awkward onlooker on several occasions. Or alternatively, you could always start a LARP group of your own.

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Phew! That took a while to get out. In any case, next week (or two weeks) I'll try to get into etiquette, or why people RP, or... some other juicy topic. :)

Introduction to Roleplaying (and the blog)

What better way to start off great rantings than an introduction!

INTRODUCTION

To start, this blog was created due to a series of events. I've been roleplaying since I was 11 years old (I am 21 currently), and one of the bizzare ordeals was that there was never any sort of written guideline on "how to roleplay." Roleplaying was this thing that you just had to sort of pick up while you went along. I personally got lucky and threw myself at an early age into Yahoo! Chat rooms, beginning to roleplay when roleplaying itself was still young. Hell, roleplaying still is young. A year or so ago I was asked by an RP group to create a sort of guide, per say. A standard. Something that they could hand to people interested in joining the group and say, “Hey! Read this, and you’ll probably be able to roleplay better.” I got about 20 pages into it before quitting and losing the documentation.

But the idea stuck. There really isn’t a guide for roleplaying, nor do many people really look into the mechanics of the situation. Sure, there are plenty of people who look into the mechanics of systems that support roleplaying (such as Dungeons and Dragons, World of the Darkness, World of Warcraft etc.) but not into the actual roleplaying itself. I’ve heard people speculate about their likes and dislikes in regards to roleplaying and different theories but much like the oral traditions of the olden days it is never written down.

And so while looking in a mirror in a bathroom while I was supposed to be theorizing the philosophy of labeling oneself suddenly I thought: why not, you know, write it down? Sure, the sheer amount of effort involved in writing something like a book might be a little daunting. But something like a blog? That’s a little more casual. But let’s have less me time and more time with the subject at hand: Roleplaying!

SO WHAT IS ROLEPLAYING?

“Roleplaying” is a term that can be broken down quite simply to find the definition. You play a role. If you wanted to look way too deep into matters, you could say that we roleplay every day—we play a role in society as a student, a teacher, a brother, a sister, a mother. We play ourselves. But describing roleplaying in that matter is rather lame, as you could really define anything as anything if you make it that vague.

If you mention roleplaying to an average joe, much of the time they’ll think of one of two things—either roleplaying in regards to competitions (such as DECA, a student organization about marketing and business) or in regards to sex. But the type covered in these essays is another less mentioned form—a type of acting done neither to convey a story to an audience nor to win awards, but for pure enjoyment. Haha, I guess you could say that recreational roleplaying is kind of like mixing sexual roleplaying and acting together… without all the naughty bits (alright, sometimes).

In any case, I would define the type of roleplaying we want to discuss as purposely acting as another individual in an entirely different set of circumstances with no clear “writer” in mind. One can roleplay a character in a story, where events are dictated to happen no matter what. But roleplaying is a social experience. While one person can play multiple characters, other people will “act” as other characters in the story, committing actions that the others have no real control over. That’s part of what makes roleplaying fun—it’s unpredictable and interesting, because unlike writing a novel, it doesn’t just feel like you’re talking to yourself.

Speaking of novels, that’s another great way to define roleplaying. As multiple people getting together and writing a novel, in real time. Even with two characters just sitting in a bar talking to each other, a story will generally emerge. Johnny Blowhards could have just broken up with his wife, lamenting to Susie Samson about how she slept with eighteen men before giving him gonorrhea. It doesn’t seem like much on its own, but it could be just one piece of a greater story—Susie could be enraged, go find Mrs. Blowhards and then murder her, thus leading to another twist in events directly caused by that simple interaction between the characters in the first place.

Roleplaying is, however, an art. Much like acting and novel writing, there are do’s and do not’s, there are stylistic elements… and there are of course stereotypes (much like Keanu Reeves is stereotyped as having a face made of rock and Stephanie Meyer is stereotyped as being a little creepy). That’s where this blog comes in! Rather than create a group directly involved in roleplaying to comment upon it, one needs to take a step back from their love to truly view it as it really is. With this, you. Readers. Yes, all two of you. Feel free to comment, share your opinions, ask questions, do dances, what have you. This is as much written for me as it is written for other people, so I’m all ears.

Happy roleplaying! Next week we’ll cover different types of roleplaying. Or this week, if I’m really pumped about it.

p.s. Here's a nice little introduction:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vw_3E5h1XIE