Post by Ginger - The Waitress on Feb 9, 2011 2:29:27 GMT -5
In most RP Forums revolving around the game Vampires: A Dark Alleyway, you will find two forms of RP. Narrative and Conversational.
Narrative is the ‘storytelling’ form of RP. Participants add to the story or tale, changing the flow and allowing for their co participants to respond to the situation. The plotline to the threads can be spontaneous responses, or it can be a series of pre-arranged events that you and the other players would discuss OOCly to form the plotline in a smooth manner.
Narrative Role-play does not even have to involve other participants. It can be written solely as a story told from whatever prospective you wish with your character, including NPC’s or supporting characters. You must never use someone else’s character in your RPs.
Narrative Role-Play courtesy. At times you can see that an RP is 'closed' or private,
taking place around only one or two characters without being marked as private in the title. If you are unsure whether you should join in on a thread, ask!!
Conversational RP is a more difficult medium, as it is extremely easy to cross the delicate ‘in character’ and ‘out of character’ line.
Conversational RP is more or less ‘speaking’ as our characters in a real time conversation such commenting to messages posted to the In Character discussion area of the forum. Your character however, isn’t ‘reading’. They are listening. They are there in the discussion.
Correcting spelling or grammar errors of someone else’s post is a clear cross of the in character/out of character line. Our characters are ‘speaking’ in conversational RP, so your character is not ‘reading’ what is being said, they are hearing it.
For example, if you find a post in the ‘conversational RP’ section in which someone posts an announcement or topic for discussion, please remember it is the character speaking. So your response should be in the mindset of your character.
What is hard to keep in mind are small terms that really are purely OOC. Speaking of the chat rooms, referencing to other ‘posts’, saying ‘my mun/human blahblah’, referring to the game, etc, is bringing out of character terms, into the in character medium, and should really be avoided. In Character, there is no ‘game’…our characters reside in the ‘city’. We have no YM; Yahoo messenger can be related into a cell phone or even a letter for proper conversational and narrative purposes.
A common slide is referencing ‘the humans’ behind the characters. For example, someone may slip into an IC conversational RP thread, ‘my human loves to sit for hours in front of a PC’ or ‘my human has business to attend, so I will be back later’. That is veiling. Its veiling the OOC to bring it into the IC medium, but it really is redundant and silly for the fact in the IC RP aspect, since when do vampires live at the beck and call of humans? They don’t. Veiling, while sometimes harmless, can quickly become ridiculous and it clutters up the flow of the In Character conversation.
Most RP forums, whether narrative or conversational, are viewed as ‘Halls’ within the IC sense of the city, meaning they are gathering places. However, not all forums are run and managed the same. Be sure to address the owners/moderators in the appropriate fashion on a matter. Out of Character is the most direct way to get to the root of an issue.
Conversational RP is also more difficult because it is a faster pace than a narrative RP. The situations rise and in character discussions can become heated very quickly. It’s hard to not take things ‘personally’, but remember it’s your character, not YOU. It’s perfectly natural to empathize and sympathize with your character. Just keep in mind, when participating in a conversational RP, you are, in all respects, ‘acting’. You are an actor, giving voice and actions to a character of your creation. If your character is insulted, there’s no reason to take it personally and retaliate with animosity to the humans behind the other characters.
Narrative is the ‘storytelling’ form of RP. Participants add to the story or tale, changing the flow and allowing for their co participants to respond to the situation. The plotline to the threads can be spontaneous responses, or it can be a series of pre-arranged events that you and the other players would discuss OOCly to form the plotline in a smooth manner.
Narrative Role-play does not even have to involve other participants. It can be written solely as a story told from whatever prospective you wish with your character, including NPC’s or supporting characters. You must never use someone else’s character in your RPs.
Narrative Role-Play courtesy. At times you can see that an RP is 'closed' or private,
taking place around only one or two characters without being marked as private in the title. If you are unsure whether you should join in on a thread, ask!!
Conversational RP is a more difficult medium, as it is extremely easy to cross the delicate ‘in character’ and ‘out of character’ line.
Conversational RP is more or less ‘speaking’ as our characters in a real time conversation such commenting to messages posted to the In Character discussion area of the forum. Your character however, isn’t ‘reading’. They are listening. They are there in the discussion.
Correcting spelling or grammar errors of someone else’s post is a clear cross of the in character/out of character line. Our characters are ‘speaking’ in conversational RP, so your character is not ‘reading’ what is being said, they are hearing it.
For example, if you find a post in the ‘conversational RP’ section in which someone posts an announcement or topic for discussion, please remember it is the character speaking. So your response should be in the mindset of your character.
What is hard to keep in mind are small terms that really are purely OOC. Speaking of the chat rooms, referencing to other ‘posts’, saying ‘my mun/human blahblah’, referring to the game, etc, is bringing out of character terms, into the in character medium, and should really be avoided. In Character, there is no ‘game’…our characters reside in the ‘city’. We have no YM; Yahoo messenger can be related into a cell phone or even a letter for proper conversational and narrative purposes.
A common slide is referencing ‘the humans’ behind the characters. For example, someone may slip into an IC conversational RP thread, ‘my human loves to sit for hours in front of a PC’ or ‘my human has business to attend, so I will be back later’. That is veiling. Its veiling the OOC to bring it into the IC medium, but it really is redundant and silly for the fact in the IC RP aspect, since when do vampires live at the beck and call of humans? They don’t. Veiling, while sometimes harmless, can quickly become ridiculous and it clutters up the flow of the In Character conversation.
Most RP forums, whether narrative or conversational, are viewed as ‘Halls’ within the IC sense of the city, meaning they are gathering places. However, not all forums are run and managed the same. Be sure to address the owners/moderators in the appropriate fashion on a matter. Out of Character is the most direct way to get to the root of an issue.
Conversational RP is also more difficult because it is a faster pace than a narrative RP. The situations rise and in character discussions can become heated very quickly. It’s hard to not take things ‘personally’, but remember it’s your character, not YOU. It’s perfectly natural to empathize and sympathize with your character. Just keep in mind, when participating in a conversational RP, you are, in all respects, ‘acting’. You are an actor, giving voice and actions to a character of your creation. If your character is insulted, there’s no reason to take it personally and retaliate with animosity to the humans behind the other characters.