[Better Rp Today]: Pt. 1, Active Interaction

[Nina 27]

Better RP Today

Part 1: Active Interaction

... or, "How to quit posing and get going."

Introduction to "Better RP Today":

Hello there! I'm Nina, a new member to the community. I have roughly thirteen years of writing and roleplaying under my belt and also extensive credentials in community management. Over my years, I've figured out a lot of what makes the hobby of roleplaying tick and how people communicate because of it. I will be occasionally releasing guides to help better your roleplay experiences. These guides, which I will release as part of a series dubbed "Better RP Today" is made with tackling specific issues in RP that everyone, even the most seasoned veterans of RP, can benefit from. Most of what I write isn't cold, hard law and I encourage everyone to think critically about what I discuss. Who knows, you might figure out something better than the advice I offer!

A word of warning: These guides are not super short. They may take you 5-10 minutes to read but, hopefully, they will help make your time roleplaying a lot more enjoyable. If your first reaction to this guide is "too long; didn't read" you might wish to pursue a hobby that doesn't require writing and reading. ;)

Active Interaction, the Problem:

A frequent problem that newer roleplayers run into is posing. We've all seen it before, the one person sitting in the corner of the room and emoting about what their character is doing but not actually engaging anyone in the process. In this guide, I will talk a little bit more about how to break out of your shell and approach people to roleplay as well as getting people interested in your plot in a more active way (rather than being passive).

Posing: The Art

Now, to begin, what do I define as posing? This is not an official RP term (that I know of) but it is something that I use to refer to the act of emoting passively. Imagine, if you will, a character entering a tavern and moving to sit alone in the corner. Instead of actively engaging another person, the character will just sit there with the player emoting how the character plays with their hair, the mug, watches other people, etc. Posing is essentially RPing with yourself where others can see; it's roleplaying out your character's actions when they're not RPing with anyone else at that exact second.

The tavern's door opens for a brief second. By the time it is closed, a cloaked figure had entered and found its way to an empty seat. The hood was drawn back to reveal the mustached face of the dashing rogue, Samuel "the Example" Grayhand. He pulls a hand-mirror from within his tunic and watches his reflection as he fixes his hair. He sits around around, thinking about things that one thinks about when sitting around. He sighs, clearly having something very interesting on his mind. He lowers a hand to his dagger when someone having a conversation gets too loud, because he has a knife and is ready to use it; the people reading this have to know that. Oh yeah, he's good looking, ladies. Anyone? *Cough*

The first thing I will say is that posing is NOT always bad. I have, in my past, greatly enjoyed some RPs that consisted of posing. A session of simply posing your character might offer you insight into how your character lives, holds themselves, or what gestures they do. You can use the time to multi-task and write something in-character for the forums or so on.

Posing, however, becomes a problem when people are doing it to try to get RP. I'd like to introduce one of my many 'golden rules' of RPing and that is: "don't expect other people to come to you for RP; if you want to RP, get out there and RP." A lot of times, people pose and expect other people to want to come over and RP.

If you have ever roleplayed with the intent to have people come over and approach your character voluntarily, you were likely posing. The "mysterious figure" who sits in the corner sharpening their knives or the "rugged sailor" who doesn't talk to people but stands around looking longingly at the ocean in plain sight of a gathering of people. That's right, they're posing.

Pull up a chair:

If you want to RP, it's no secret that you want to get a person to RP with you. RPing on your own (or just writing, really) can be rewarding, but a lot of the fun of roleplaying is having that other (group of) player(s). The best thing I can recommend is just having your character approach another person and talk to them. A lot of people really seem to dig the whole "mysterious" thing and other people just like having someone else come to them because it makes them feel warm on the inside. Answered simply? Don't. Don't do that. Get out there and approach people, you'll get RP faster and you'll make the world a better place (mostly).

Now, that was the simple answer. Since we're RPing a person and hopefully doing it realistically, the person probably won't want to come up and talk to people all the time. They probably might even find it awkward or unnecessary to just... introduce themselves to people. Perhaps they're wealthy, important, or otherwise inclined to not approach strangers? There are ways to have your character "approach" without just making them walk up to someone and say "hello!"

Step Zero: Swallow the pride.

Approaching another player doesn't mean you're a worse person or whatever crazy thing might come into mind. You won't look desperate-- whereas the person emoting in the corner in the hopes that someone will come RP with them will.

Step One: Figure out your purpose or goal.

I will talk a lot in my guides about goals and motivation because they are the single most important thing for generating good roleplay. If that is the only thing you walk out of this guide with, it's remember your character's motivation/goals. As a player, your motivation in that situation might just be to entertain yourself for half an hour by talking to someone or you might be trying to get a plot going. The important thing is to think about what your character wants, if they want something. If your character doesn't want to meet people for whatever reason, the interaction will likely be incidental, accidental, or otherwise a surprise. Those interactions are usually weaker and won't make for a long-lasting RP unless they're just used for the initial meeting. If your character drops their books in front of someone and then proceeds to be embarrassed and introduce themselves, that could work.

The best interactions (usually) are ones in which a character has a clear goal for why they're interacting with this person. It can be as simple as "just wants to talk to someone because they're bored" to something with a bit more forethought like "wants to use this person for X nefarious plan." Keep this in mind during your character's approach and try to get into their heads. If you keep in mind your character's goals, the interaction will follow through. If your character has a reason to talk to people, your character will practically RP themselves to keeping this interaction afloat.

Step Two: Check the setting.

Depending on where your characters are, the place may or may not lend itself to just meeting people. Just like in real life, you're much more likely to talk to a complete stranger in a bar rather than in the middle of town. For that reason, your method of approach will probably have to differ and be tailored to the situation. If your character wanted to approach someone at the grounds of the Cloud Temple, for instance, they might start up a conversation by asking about the history of the Temple or whether that person has come as part of a pilgrimage.

Step Three: Apply it to your experiences.

Obviously, we don't have elves, orcs, or magic in our world. However, loosely applying RP situations and interactions to real life situations you may have experienced can help you understand what is happening and RP more realistically. After all, if someone just ran up to you out of the blue and said "Hi! What's your name! I'm Sam! What's your name!" you might just call the police. Think about what your character is doing, what they'd think about what they're doing, and how the other character might think/feel about what your character is doing. This could lead to hilarious and excellently-RP'd results. For instance, perhaps your character knows that what they're doing looks crazy and they're trying to explain themselves in the process!

Step Four: Approach!!

Initiate the approach. Usually, it's a courtesy to not approach a player who's in the middle of a scene (that's interrupting, friend!) without checking if it's okay, first. A bit of OOC communication never hurts, but it's not necessary. Asking the person if they're up to roleplay at that moment, if they're IC (they should be!), or if they're staying up if it's late can help save awkward situations from happening but it's not something you need to do. Have your character approach however you had the idea of. This is you actively initiating with this player roleplay interaction and hopefully they will answer in kind. Congratulations, you might have just got the roleplay you were looking for and you might have just made a new friend!

Step Five(ish): Take it with a grain of salt.

This might seem like a lot of work at a glance. These thoughts are not supposed to be official, 'write them down on paper' thoughts. They can be if that's your style, but in the end-- these things should go through your head in thirty seconds or so. When you approach another player to RP, you have to expect that that player might not be ready to RP at the moment. Whether their character is currently occupied for whatever reason or they might be AFK/not in the right mood/tired/logging off/etc. If someone doesn't want to RP and turns you down (or even misses your messages/ignores you!), don't take it hard. Just reel it in, take a breath, and find a new person to RP with. It's easy to be discouraged or even offended, but don't let it get to you. It's just the way it works.

Other situations in posing:

Posing can sometimes be active in the sense that it's an action that would make people want to react. However, this kind of posing is still highly passive because you're putting the ball in the other player's court to actively make the choice for their character to approach and initiate roleplay with you.

I saw an example of this earlier today while RPing and it's something that I've seen very, very, very often in my roleplay experience. I'll describe a similar situation in the example below.

Samuel tumbled from his chair to the floor, gasping for breath. His eyes were wide as dinner plates and shot with red in surprise. A hand grasped up to his neck as he tried to rise to his feet. He choked and choked! Blood poured from his mouth! His hands fell off! He vomited! His legs became wheels! Hair grew from his body! He has a big cut in his chest! Please! Someone! Pay attention and help Samuel! Come and show concern!

This sort of roleplay is very attention-seeking. Now, I'm not saying that roleplaying out a character's injury or ailment is attention-seeking. However, I've seen roleplayers write dozens of emotes (because no one was approaching them) of their characters bleeding to death or giving birth or whatever and how much pain their character was in or so on in the hopes that someone would come up and help their character or just show some concern.

There are better ways to do this. A lot of times, these RPers will RP their character dragging themselves away, outside, or otherwise move away from the RP and block themselves off. If your character is dying over there, instead of having them drag themselves outside of the bar, perhaps they can drag themselves over to people and ask for help. But, of course, there are the characters who are simply too brave, bold, and stoic to ask for help! Perhaps they can drag themselves over to apologize for making a mess and asking if they could borrow a towel to wipe up the guts they left behind.

Samuel shuts himself behind the door with a slam! Tears well up in his eyes as he pulls a locket from within his tunic and holds it to his eyes. The golden jewelry is quickly clutched to his chest as he moans out tears of woe, misery, sadness, and the blues. He looks around, obviously needing someone to talk to... it's a good thing he's behind this door where people will gladly come and talk to him!

I use the example of injury and pain extensively, but this really applies to anything. A lot of RPers feel like they need to move their character away from people and have someone break off and come to them. Guess what? People probably will not come. Instead of having your character leave the tavern in a dramatic huff with tears in their eyes and hoping that someone comes to talk to them outside, do something that people can actually react to. The best way to do that is actively interacting with another player and initiating contact.

The end, for now:

This concludes the guide on Active Interaction. I might, in the future, add to this guide or fix it up a little bit. If you spot any grammatical errors, typos, or run across anything that's vague or confusing? Let me know (preferably by PM so as to not clutter the thread with how much I fail at writing :P). If you feel like you have questions that weren't answered in the guide? Let me know. And if you have any ideas for future guides, whether it's something in RP that confuses you, is difficult to you, or that you can't quite get a grasp of? Feel free to ask- it might just be the next issue addressed in "Better RP Today."

Thank you for reading and let me know what you think below in the comments.

-Nina

[cometking123 236]

My god.

*tear*

My hero.

[Nina 27]

My god.

*tear*

My hero.

Good thing I didn't throw away this cape. I was thinking I'd never get around to being a hero again.

Glad you enjoyed the guide! -- I think! I hope! :)

[xmrsmoothx 317]

Wonderful guide, Nina. I'm looking forward to roleplaying with you.

[Ivran 137]

Oh muh gawd. This is an extremely well written, and informative guide. I think I might be in love. +9001 Minas.

[shiftnative 3103]

This was a lovely guide. I read this on my phone will only the sounds of wind -We need to make a mainpage post commemerating guides and things :o

[Bat Druid 140]

That'sssssss a very nice guide you have there...be a shame if sssssssomeone were to sssssteal it.

But in all seriousness i think this may, MAY, have improved my roleplay. O-or nothing maybe it's nothing!

[Alakabam 582]

There are some good tips and tricks in there. ;)

[Nina 27]

I'm really flattered by the response in this topic-- so fast, too! I want to thank you all for taking the time to read the guide. I plan on releasing plenty more of these to address different specific issues and phenomena in RP. If one guide didn't exactly give you too much food for thought, hopefully the next one will. I've already got a few guides planned that I will probably type up over the next few days and release. This topic is just one that I know is a big issue for new RPers and veteran RPers alike and saw a particularly glaring example of one happen right before my eyes.

As I said in the main post-- if any of you have any ideas for future topics, feel free to PM me. If you have any questions relating specifically to active interaction, posing, or initiating RP, feel free to ask them here (or PM me!) I'm always willing to answer any RP/character-related questions as best as I can, so feel free to toss those in a PM if you'd like.

[Ivran 137]

What ever happened to the 2000 minas for a good guide? I think that would be extremely helpful!

[Cappy 1599]

Oh my. That was utterly fantastic...

I don't know what to say apart from... thank you!

[Nina 27]

You're welcome! I haven't been around the community for longer than 3 days, but I did see a lot of passive interaction/posing so I really hope this helps people break out of that a bit more.

[Fredfort (jens6851) 283]

-Grabs his chains and bolts Nina to the "Ts channel."-

"Teach me moreeee~ Master!~"

Naahh... Really.. Wow, you're taking this server with storm. ;-)

I'm looking forward to rp with you. And I'm sure that you're going to do amazing things here.

Welcome once more! And good job. :D

Jena... Out!

[Nina 27]

-Grabs his chains and bolts Nina to the "Ts channel."-

"Teach me moreeee~ Master!~"

/color]

Hey, I can't wait to RP with you either... but... are the chains necessary? :<

[ℓαтєяяє ~ 236]

Awesome job Nina.

I've RPed with Nina MANY times before, and she's the best new RPers I've ever seen.

(BTW, it's Igrud.)