I disagree, because big post tends to mean more detail. Though some people go overboard (I remember some guy from TWC who made a very long post to say he saw a dead guy then jumped over a wall).

I'm not saying we can't, just we don't.

That's true. But like you said, Long Posts can either mean more detail, or just rambling on about something. We generally do a decent job here with generally posts in the 1-2 paragraph range on average, withe shorter posts sometimes. Longer is good, but it means you have to read more to learn just as much. I don't mind reading, but if one guy writes three paragraphs on how he stabs a guy (Litterally just the one action of stabbing), and another writes a paragraph and says how he does an elaborate dodge of a foe, then retaliates with a stab, the shorter one is better in my opinion. I don't like books that ramble on about some minor detail most would ignore, and I don't like posts that ramble on for pages when a detailed paragraph would do just as well. I'm just a "Get to the point" kind of guy I guess...

Right. I'll do a fantasy-type setting, just because they're common and relatively simple.

Name: Zikel Rindain
Race: Human
Sex: Male
Age: 18
Class: Druid
Height: 5'10
Weight: 178
Physical Description: Black hair grown to his chin, green eyes, very well tanned from almost unceasing sun exposure. Numerous body paintings, including a lightning bolt on his right cheek, a thorny vine along his left forearm, and a bear paw either hand. Wears a leather armor vest, and ordinary woolen breeches. Arms are completely bare, hence the visibility of the vine. He never wears any sort of helmet and very rarely wears shoes.
Bio: Comes from a small tribe of plainsland nomads deeply connected with nature. Once his eighteenth birthday came around, he departed from his family on the highly valued tradition of kwaalme, the coming of age ceremony, in which the prospective adult wanders off among the 'city-builders' for a full year. Once the year has expired, if he can track the movements of his family, and find their temporary home, he is accepted as an adult member of the clan. His tribe has cultivated a special brand of magic for generation, which deals not with manipulating raw energy, but in channeling that energy through his surroundings. This magic is believed to come from the Nature itself, and thus is used to turn the plants, earth, and air around him into both protection and weaponry. Although almost boundlessly curious, like nearly all kwaalme-goers, he is brooding by nature, and has a somewhat limited command of the standard human language, thus making him invariably silent, seeming taciturn and uncivilized.
Equipment: Aside from his clothing, he fights using a long, 7" knife with a finely polished oaken handle, with many designs carved into the wood. The knife, blade and all, was made by his own hands, and he is fiercely protective of it.

OK, there's the bio, and here are the posts (not related in any way, just attempting to put the character in different situations):

Zikel stumbled through the dirt road of the village as if in a daze, shaking his head as he gazed around in awe. Frequently people would bump into him or shove him out of the way, but he was unfazed, completely consumed by wonder. Only the loud sounds of commotion from the east caused him to divert his attention towards the tavern.

The orc lunged at Zikel, lifting its axe and slobbering angrily, but with a mere gesture to an innocent bush on the forest floor, a thorny vine wrapped around each of the beast's ankles at the druid's command, and another slipped around its neck, yanking the monster to its knees. The axe flailed wildly, but Zikel grabbed the orc's wrist and twisted roughly, and the weapon fell from its grasp with a thump. "You shall pay," the nomad snarled, and rammed his knife through its chest. The orc's final breath gargled in its throat, and then it fell limp, and the vines slid like snakes to their shrubs, and then turned back into unassuming roots, with no evidence there had been any other way.

Zikel stared at him blankly. The elf was using words that meant nothing to him. For a moment, he impulsively lapsed into his native tongue. "Dulnark jredish vipun, inesh fegat tunjan."

Haze away.

The writing is good (Though you over use commas, but I do that too). Though you randomly threw in an Orc, but I am assuming that is only so you could do a post about fighting, since fighting post tend to be easier to detail over just sitting there stirring around a drink while sitting in a bar.

And is that an actual language, or random letters?

Edit - Oh, I get it now. Those three paragraphs have nothing to do with eachother. At first I thought you just skipped two paragraphs (The intro of the orc and the intro of the elf)

Edit 2 - See, that is a fault of mine. I completely miss sentences every now and then (I missed the sentence above the three paragraphs explaining my first edit).

No, it's not an actual language, I just threw together letters that were actually phonetically possible to pronounce. I hate it when people make up languages where words are like, kpjfeld or xnhilqk. It's just a personal pet peeve of mine. I actually attempt to make my made-up words seem relatively genuine, and because you had to ask first, I assume I did so with some measure of success.

I can guess what "fegat" means.

May I post a minor critique?

I don't think there's many 7' swords less an 7' knife. You may want to check that.

7 inches, not seven feet. I'll correct that.

EDIT: I'm glad you know what fegat means, because I know I sure don't.

Whoops. That blew past me. I should of thought more about that before I posted, it wasn't necessary to bring up at all. My apologies.

Why not, I RP all the time, but have never been graded, so, I am ready to be shot down.

Name: Kirothan
Race: Anthro-Wolf
Sex: Male
Age: 19
Class: Bard
Height: 6' 9"
Weight: 197
Physical Description: Black shaggy mane, covering every square inch of his wolfen body. His muzzle is about 6 inches long. His emerald hued eyes stand out among the chaotic fur. His body, despite the weight is rather lean, well defined from all his running. He wears black human's pants for cover. He is, after all, decent.
Bio: Kirothan is a member of the wind-clan of wolves. As the name may suggest, they prey and worship the wind, and are capable of minor wind spells. Kirothan left when he was young due to the fact that he was rather tired of the ins and outs of this common boring life. He joined with a small traveling proformance group, which sang/danced. This is where Kiro picked up his first lute, a guitar like instrument. (for those who dont know) He was fluent with it in a matter of moments. He did not make any money off of it though, because the owners of the troop turned him into a slave. He was locked in cages and, to his owner's great mistake, rooms. In one particular room, he found a book on music, on the 'powers of music'. This is when he discovered bardic magery. After a few days of silent study, he broke free and destroyed the group, using a mixture of his physical abilities, and his musical magic. Kirothan now wanders, playing music to survive.

(RP to come)

hah, I sometimes miss the signups simply because i spend so much time reading everyone else's profiles and such.

edit- I think I could guess about who's on that third list, IHMN, but I won't say, just to be *COUGH*Smash Daisaku*COUGH* nice

Ok, I've been thinking this over, and heres the criterion.

(1) No 'Sign ups'. Don't post what your character looks like, his age, bio, none of that. That should be conveyed in your 'submission'. It doesnt have to be excruciating detail ("Jacob, the 43 year old business banker who had three boys, a girl, and a mortage payment strode in with his Armani suit with the three buttons to show his gun..."), and bonus points if you can relay the small details in a coo way (don't go wracking your brain to figure out a way to reinvent the wheel though).

(2) Submissions may be whatever 'genre' you feel shows your best qualities. Some hints though (a) If you create a new race (for Fantasy or Sci-fi) be sure that theres some descriptors in it so that we know what the hell you're looking at (EX: "The three tentacled Isaoiuf flayed at me" NOT: "The Isaoiuf shot at me") (b) If possible, keep weapon details to sparse adjectives. We're not all gun experts, and the exact lengths of swords and knives don't appeal to the imagination. (c) Try to keep it third person, thats what the majority of RPin is done in here (exceptions are all the n00bie threads and Calvinball, where its fun to say you just blasted a guys groin off)

(3) Length: I don't really mind it here, since you have no time consrtaints, but if you hit the two page mark in Word, you MIGHT be takin it a tad too far. Like FZ said, sometimes you can accomplish a lot with a little.

(4) As you probably figured out, l33t speak and bad grammar are the n00bs partners in crime. Automatic grade reducal if I spot a single l33t phrase/word.

Any other suggestions?

That's a lot of rules for something that seemed made up on the spur of the moment... However, a bunch of those seem pretty spot on for important things around here.

Is patience with the frequent rules changes part of the test?

You should make a new thread with updated rules, and if anyone actually cares enough then they can actually post there.

And I vote all of us 'Elites' do a post as well.

It was made on the spur of the moment, I've just had all day to hammer out the details. Ya know, speaking of Rai and Avarial, we should really try to get one of the Elites to become RP Forum mod. Then we'll have someone to sticky all the important stuff, and lock threads that go overboard, but someone whos still always around and understands where your coming from...

Meh, why not. I'll agree to do a post.

EDIT: You walk a dangerous path BM, making the mods pay attention to the RP Forum and it's random insanity... Much less making the Elites try to choose an adequate mod amongst ourselves.

I nominate and vote for myself.

A little writer's advice: If the scene you're describing is slow, then take some time to describe it. RPers like to know where they are, and how they might feel by being there. It's the subconscious things that can turn the mudane into the...uh...fun. Don't go nuts, but guage the relative urgency or calm and let it guide the pace of the writing. A smoky bar will be mellow, slow, and chilled out(and I do like repeating myself); don't use hard, energized words where soft, mood-setting ones will suffice.
-Just my 2 cents.


And muffins, all submittors but present muffins...sweet jeebus, this is funny

edit- I'll throw something up, as well

Actually, I wouldn't mind becoming the rp mod.

However if you read the forum rules, it states there that they don't appoint any other mods unless one steps down. As far as I know Rai hasn't stepped down yet, albeit she's not around much.

I nominate CJ and second Batgirls nomination.

I nominate forgetting this idea, on the basis that it would cause the mods to actually look around here... and no one really wants that... what with the four hundred post long discussions and all. Plus, we don't seem to need one, really. Although, if we must have one, I'd vote FZ... maybe batgirl, although I haven't seen enough of her to really be sure.

I know I wouldn't vote for myself or anyone whom resembles me, however... because I tend to become drunk on power.

Personally, I would vote for someone that is around all the time, so I would say either krylo, IHMN, or myself.

However as batgirl said, the mods choose who they want to choose, and they only choose a new mod if an old one steps down, so while this is all well and good, Rairai would choose who would be her replacement if she ever left being a mod, so this is really all a rather pointless debate.

EDIT: And krylo has a point on how we tend to mod ourelves here fairly well, and it is best to NOT attract mod attention.

I nominated myself seeing as I am the only one who actually cares that the threads are getting to 200+ post...

batgirl isn't on enough to close threads enough before they already go to far, and Celes would probably refuse unless we tried to force her into it.

When was the last time RaiRai has even been on?

Edit - Just checked. Last time on was the 24th, last post was the 14th. And I doubt she even checked this forum last time she was on.

Most of us don't see it as a huge problem I guess. I don't see why it matters too much.

Both true in my book. Also, you don't see batgirl actually do any RPing outside of that one RP...

02-25-2004 03:50 PM

Rai's last activity was on february 25th, so it's been over a month now since she's been in here.

Actually, I am on quite a bit, I just don't post to every thread in existance. Recently I've been busy with changing my major and running around to various councellors to change said major (stupid school system) so I haven't been on a lot.

Bandwidth, and by the post count here, the RP fourm probably makes half the payments for Brian/Peirre (Or the number of post/threads might not matter and it's a user number thing).

That's fair. I'm on all the time because I live in a small town where no one I know lives near me, and there isn't anything else to do but stay at home, play video games, and RP in the forum.

Bandwidth has to do with the number of people online, not the number of posts I believe... Thus Mash's comments a while back when someone suggested getting a ton of people online all at once to break the record, and she brought up the Bandwidth issue.

Actually, at one point I had two rps of my own, and I was in Metropolis, Soldier's of Light, Warriors of the Elements and the FF RP (although that one didn't last long once I joined) and the Holiday rp so I've been in plenty of rps that aren't my own. I'm not familiar enough with Halo and the other game-based rps to jump in to those and I refuse to play in any more God-Mod arenas.

Just because I don't jump into every rp that passes my way doesn't make me any less of a capable roleplayer (I'm not saying you're implying this at all FZ, I'm just making a statement).

I wasn't saying that. From the RPs I've seen you in, you are a good roleplayer. Now it just seems ironic in retrospect, that I either didn't join the RPs you did, or if we were both in an RP, it wasn't around long anyway.

Alright, sorry to doubt your RP experience. It's just that Cyber Warriors is really the only/biggest name one you are in and that is still around, so it is the only one I really knew you from.

Bandwidth = people on... server space = posts that are saved. Although, in reality bandwidth is data transfer... so posts made is bandwidth, so are posts viewed.

Although, either way... making threads shorter doesn't conserve anything... because you just make a new thread and start posting there instead. The same amount of posts end up being made, just in different places... the reason for the post count rules are to make things easier to keep in check/to cut down on spam. Most normal discussions are done in well under 4 pages... thus the four page count through the rest of the board. We have a 100 post count here to make it easier for a mod to look through a thread and find things/to make it easier on the actual posters finding things.

And, Batgirl... they're just saying we don't normally see you around so we figure you aren't on that much. Reasons, such as school, are immaterial... although good reasons, if there was to be a new mod here, it should be someone who doesn't have anything better to do with their time.

At least that's what it looks like to me.

Hence the braketed writing at the bottom of my post that says:

I'm well aware that you didn't say that my rping is poor quality, I was just making my own statement in general.

You are forgiven for questioning my rp experience though. *Puts away "Squirrely Wrath" gun and hands FZ a cookie*.

But we are lazy, and don't like making new threads that often, so if one was closed there would be no place to post until the GM made a new thread.

Cookie! *FZ shuts up and eats the cookie offered*

Question: Why do we want a mod again? We do mod oursleves, and a mod would just make everything needlessly more complicated tehn necessary... Although I will throw out that I'm a mod on another forum if it matters.

That, and it would be better to have an offical mod around just incase ((Edit) My example has already been fixed by the poster)

What announcements would we need to make? I can't think of any, except maybe rules updates or something. And locking threads, as krylo borught up, doesn't really do anything in an RP format except cut down RPs into Mod Friendly chunks...

I am vaguely tempted to comment.

I would only recommend it if you want to:

A. Rile everyone up

B. Have something to contribute

Since the topic seems to be, for the most part, resolved.

I will fall to my temptations and wonder aloud as to just why the Noob helping thread has been so horribly perverted. Just curious...

n00b helping thread?

And I'll make a new thread with the updated rules.

And the only things we really need to sticky would be things like this, the one "Story-Completed RPs" idea I had (is Perdition still the only one to actually complete story wise?), and Raidens character archive thing. And maybe a permanent god-mod thread so we can stop all the extra threads.

I sure feel helped.

No, wait, that's soul-crushing dispair.

You get used to it. After a while, you balance it out with apathy. It's all about maintaining the balance.

At least people post in here. Comics is just...depressing. It's a barren wasteland, populated with "OMG CHECK OUT MY NEW COMIC ITS TEH FUNNY!"

Everytime I look at it, a little part of me dies.

I would join you in the comics section, but I have no money to buy comics, and Kazaa can not provide me with the needed issues of comics.

Edit - Raven looks like she has cat ears in your avatar.

Considering the number of those I see pop up, you must be pretty close to undead by now... It really does seem that it's all people talk about. I would pop in more, if not for the fact that, like you said, it's always plugs, and I don't know a lot about actual comic books.

Yes. Yes she does. I noticed that a while ago, but I'm too lazy to make another screen cap. Besides, I think it's funny.

I need to get in on an RP so I can learn how it really works, but I'm not touching calvin ball with and I'm not about to just jump in on one that's been going on for a long time.

Apathy...I'd like some of that. Maybe. I wouldn't really care either way. It's not like anyting really matters anyways...

edit- Wind-up, I should be starting one later this week (The metroid RP for anyone who i lured into talking about last week). Should it suit your "fancy," as the english would have it.

You could just read some RPs, Wind-up... until someone makes a new one. Then leap on it like a starving lion in a fit of rage... and hold on as though your life depends upon it, clutching and clawing with every fiber of your being! ...Or just make a character there... either or.

That's what I did when I joined in on this section of the forums.

Sage advice. Always lurk around a forum and learn the general feel for their RPs before you jump in. That is what most of the vets do, they keep an eye on how the others do it so they have an idea how it works when the jump in so they don't look like total n00bs.

I don't know how, but I didn't follow that rule. Maybe it's because I'm silent or just a quick learner, but somehow it didn't apply to me.

Is this thread going to be restarted with the updated rules, or should we just post our rp-ing here?

...so am I going to be relentlessly critiqued or not?

IHMN, I consider myself a fairly good English student, though you're not the first person to mention that I use too many commas.

It's going to be restarted. So wait till tomarrow/tonight when BM posts a new thread.

I thought that I'd add my two cents' opinion for all those seeking advice...

First off, I am honored to make it to the "Elite/Veteran" list. I give my sincerest thanks to IHMN for being considerate in putting me there. It really helps in the self-esteem department when I've been having a mediocre day :)

Hopefully, this (true) story will help those wishing to join in on existing RPs: back in Novenmber, I joines as a n00b to the Roleplaying scene, having never done it before here or anywhere else. I wanted to join up, and lo and behoild, I saw the original Casual Roleplaying Thread, already into it's 5th (or so) chapter. Kinda funny my first RP had the fairly uncommon Sci-Fi theme.

So, I PMed who I thought was in charge (LittleWhiteMage), wrote up a profile, and BAM! I was in on the action. It was pretty cool, RPing for the first time with greats such as LWM, Dante, and others...but the RP unfortunately collapsed.

On that note, here's some key advice for newcomers (sorry if I repeat): I've yet to complete a RP during my 5 month membership, but that's a pretty common occurrence, so don't get discouraged. Also, cut GMs slack when they set up an RP. Ecurt and I teamed up for the Battle of the Bands RP, and it was tough enough with just half of the GMing load on my shoulders.

Last but not least, have fun, darnit! Sometimes people get discouraged and turn the whole RP into a bore/b****fest for the rest of the gamers out there. Trust me, one of the funnest things you can do in an RP is writing Omakes/bloopers.

If you actually read through that, you should get a cookie.

Anyways...is there any suggestions for me that anyone would like to make? I feel my skills diminishing from their former glory...
*points upward* descriptive stuff like that gets you kudos, as well! Just don't go overboard, like the othr guys have said.